Guy Georgias

Guy Clement Georgias born Aguy Zvavahera Ushe in Chivhu in 1935 in Unyetu-Mutomba Village once served in the Zimbabwe government as Deputy Minister of Public Works. At the time of his death he was a non-constituency Senator (presumably representing the Coloureds community). He was born in 1935 and died on 19 December 2015 in Harare. He was of the Shava totem from Mutekedza Chieftainship in Chikomba. He was the eldest son of James Ushe Shoniwa, and could have taken over as Chief Mutekedza had it not been for his desire not to associate with his roots. He identified as a person of Mixed Race or as a Coloured. His brother Herbert said he did this for economic and legal reasons when he entered the City of Salisbury (now Harare) looking for economic opportunities. That time, white colonialists favoured people of Mixed Race compared to blacks. He was enterprising and is known for starting an engineering company, Trinity Engineering which during the early years of independence had lucrative government contracts. One such contract involved assembling military vehicles, notably the Puma trucks. He is known for having married 3 wives.^[1] the first one is said to have been of Indian origin and they seared 5 children in the town of Gweru. The second whom he married in 1977 under the old Chapter 37 (now Chapter 5:11) was black like him and she was called Manana. With Manana, they never had any child. The third one was Jane aka Lizzie, and they seared 5 children and Jane also had 6 children from a previous marriage. When he died of heart attack and kidney complications in Zimbabwe on December 19 December 2015, he was declared a National Hero by the Mugabe government and was ultimately buried at the National Heroes Acre. Although he did not fight in the war of liberation, Zvavahera was declared a national hero for challenging the European Union (EU) in court. He sued the EU for €6 million damages for imposing sanctions on himself and the Zanu PF leadership but his application was dismissed by the EU General Court. He himself was on the sanctions list and was denied entry in the UK in 2007. He exhausted his personal fortune in the war against EU, but lost the case. In President Mugabe's words at his funeral, Guy approached the government to assist him pay his lawyers. He also asked to go with Mugabe to Venezuela to present his case but despite promises, Hugo Chavez, who was then Venezuelan President, died without offering financial support. The government the paid the legal costs. During his funeral, the family was divided. Jane was recognised by the government as the wife and she participated with her children in the funeral wake. The official funeral was organised from Rocky Lodge in Strathaven in Harare. Manana^[2] was not recognised and together with other relatives of Guy who trouped from Chivhu, they gathered in Highlands at his other house for the funeral. they complained to government and threatened to boycott the national shrine event. They claim to have been instructed by CIOs (Zimbabwe Intelligence) to attend the funeral to which they did. His rural family complained that the government did not follow traditional values. For example they did not recognise the wife they know, Manana. They also did not take his body to the rural village. Further the government did not consult the rural family and allowed a daughter of 31 years named as Tina (of Mixed Race) to speak at the national shrine ahead of family elders including his 55 year old black son named Tony.

In a piece published by the Standard Newspaper,^[3] the author, Everson Mushava, equated Aguy's self denial of identity to Ngoni, a character created for a popular novel in Shona language. The narration goes like, "Veteran author Aaron Chiundura Moyo’s award winning novel, Ziva Kwawakabva (know your roots) has remained a masterpiece close to four decades after it was first published in 1977. The novel depicts a male character, Ngoni, born and bred in a rural setting but later abandons his roots for western life after setting foot in the city. Marrying a civilised woman who belonged to a well-to-do family with deep orientation in the western culture, Ngoni did not only become increasingly embarrassed by his traditional cultural life, but his people too — especially his own parents. The death of former Economic Development deputy minister Aguy Clement Ushe, aka Georgias last week, did more than enough to bring Chiundura Moyo’s novel into perspective. Georgias was regarded as a champion of the rights of coloured people in Zimbabwe but after his death it was revealed that he was not of mixed race heritage. He changed his surname to Georgias perhaps because in the city he first lived with an uncle named George Ushe but also worked for a Greek named Georgiadis. However another theory says he changed his identity because his father was abusive. The writer further say "According to leaked United States diplomatic cables, Georgias took up a new name during the colonial times to achieve a better social and legal standing. After independence, he kept his origins a secret, the cables leaked by WikiLeaks say. “President Robert Mugabe also appointed Georgias as a recognition to the coloured community. Georgias is actually a black Zimbabwean hailing from the Zezuru subgroup of the Shona ethnicity, just like Mugabe,” WikiLeaks reported after Georgias was put on the sanctions list." Everson Mushava concluded that whether Georgias’ decision to keep his origins a secret was a sign of his ethnocentric view of the white culture, it could not be established. But true, the man lived a life of self-denial, he indeed despised his origins.

Guy was a controversial figure. Zimbabwe media reported that in September 2015, he was in the news again when he lost a local court case where he was seeking to defend his company Trinity Engineering’s property from being bonded over his son Russel Karimazondo’s $686 172 debt with Telecel Zimbabwe. Georgias was accusing Karimazondo of forging his signature on a power of attorney, which he allegedly submitted to register a mortgage bond and secured a $500 000 credit from Telecel Zimbabwe. But High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi dismissed his appeal and ruled in Telecel’s favour.

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