Chenjerai Hunzvi

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Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi (October 23, 1949—June 4, 2001) was born in Chiminya, a village in the Mashonaland province of Zimbabwe. Hunzvi is remembered for his militant leadership of the War Veterans Association, a group synonymous with Zimbabwe's chaotic land reform programme.

[edit] Education in Europe

Hunzvi is thought to have been arrested by the Rhodesian government in his teenage years for involvement in black nationalist movements. Unlike Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, however, Hunzvi did not become a key figure in the workings of Zimbabwean Independence. Instead, he took an opportunity to study medicine in Eastern Europe where he married a Polish woman named Wieslawa Hunzvi and became fluent in both French and Romanian.

In 1979, in the middle of his studies, Hunzvi visited London in order to attend the Lancaster House Agreement where Zimbabwe's new constitution was being drawn up. He did not return to Zimbabwe until 1990 though, when he began a medical practice in Budiriro, a township of Harare. Wieslawa Hunzvi is said to have fled Zimbabwe in 1992 to escape violence from her husband.

[edit] Political career

Hunzvi became chairman of the Zimbabwean Liberation War Veterans Association in 1997, which, at the time, was almost unheard of in Zimbabwe's political spectrum. Hunzvi was soon organising demonstrations and openly criticizing President Mugabe for reneging on his promises to compensate war veterans. In this way, and much to Hunzvi's credit as an effective activist, the War Veteran Association became a force Robert Mugabe could not ignore. Mugabe soon agreed to pay a huge sum towards the war veteran community.

By 1999 however, Hunzvi's reputation had diminished since becoming involved in a corruption case regarding the theft of money from the War Veterans Fund. He was denied bail, but never found guilty. In 2000 Hunzvi adopted the name "Hitler"-claiming it to be his nom-de-guerre and led the campaign that led to the seizure of white-owned land and the deaths and harassment of many supporters of the MDC party (Zimbabwe's only prominent opposition party). War Veterans denied voting access to whites and MDC supporters when Mugabe sought a mandate to seize white owned farms, although the attempt failed to stop a 55% No vote.

Hunzvi died suddenly in 2001 whilst in Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital. His death was officially attributed to malaria, but it is widely suspected that he died of AIDS.

Despite never fighting for Zanu PF, one fraud charge Hunzvi could not defeat was his claims to be "115% disabled" for which he was fined. Irrespective of his phenomenal achievement in forcing Robert Mugabe to grant one off payments of USD $2,500 and monthly pensions of USD $100 to the 50,000 members (this contributed heavily to the crashing of the Zimbabwean dollar), Hunzvi was eventually voted out of the War Veterans Association.

[edit] References

• The Guardian Obituary of Chenjerai Hunzvi Andrew Meldrum June 5, 2001.