Shadreck Chipanga

Children

Chipanga and his wife Betty have two children; Nyasha and Tanaka.^[2]

Properties

Chipanga is a beneficiary of the land reform programme. He owns Mukonyora Farm, on the outskirts of Rusape.^[2]

Second Chimurenga Contribution

In 1962 Chipanga joined the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and became its first national youth leader. In 1962, Chipanga, together with John Mupembe, was charged with organising and teaching youth recruits how to manufacture petrol bombs and other dangerous explosives.

Shadreck Chipanga served a 10-year jail term for acts of insurgency.

Chipanga shared time in prison with Robert Mugabe, Edgar Tekere, Maurice Nyagumbo, Enos Nkala and Matthew Malowa. In an interview with The Manica Post, he said he was the mastermind in the manufacture of petrol bombs and explosives. At one time he had to relocate from Salisbury to Bulawayo after he heard that police wanted to arrest him. While in Bulawayo he was temporarily housed at the house of Frank Ziyambi.

Simon Muzenda recalled him to Salisbury and Chipanga said he used someone else’s national identity card and used it to travel back to Salisbury. On May 19, 1963, a meeting was convened in Gweru and it was resolved that Chipanga should go to Ghana through Tanzania, for military training. The word of his posting was intercepted by the Special Branch, and all exit points were sealed. Chipanga said he was smuggled out of Rhodesia in the container of a Clan truck. On arrival at an Immigration checkpoint, an attempt was made to open the container, but the situation was saved by the driver’s insistence that it was loaded with cigarettes and sealed.

From Tanzania, Chipanga was posted to Ghana using the name Samuel Gurupira. His training focused on how to assemble, disassemble, operate a gun, make explosives and manufacture bombs. After finishing his training, Shadreck Chipanga passed back through Chirundu together with Linos Mukoro, Titus Chakawanda and Wilson Chihota. The four crossed the Zambezi River in a canoe.

After walking for 12km along the Zambezi Valley they were fortunate to be bundled at the back of another Clan truck. They were dropped at Nyabira in Mashonaland West. He was arrested after being sold out by an infiltrator, Simon Bene. Chipanga was arrested along Grey Street in Bulawayo on his way to meet Dr Samuel Munyawarara over logistical issues. He was detained at Solusi Town Police Station before being transferred to Banket.

In 1972, he was moved to Khami Prison and later Salisbury, where he became an inmate with Mugabe, Edgar Tekere, Maurice Nyagumbo, Enos Nkala and Matthew Malowa. Chipanga was moved to Gweru, while others were taken to Hwahwa Prison till 1979. Shadreck Chipanga was part of a delegation that attended the Lancaster House Constitutional talks as the Zanu youth chair­per­son.^[2]

Education

Shadreck Chipanga enrolled at Warrick University, where he studied for a BA in Politics and International Studies. He returned to Zimbabwe in 1982 and joined the President’s Department. He was posted to Germany and Britain to sharpen his intelligence gathering and interpretation acumen.^[2]

Career

Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)

In 1982, Chipanga joined the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). He was appointed Deputy Director-General sometime in the 1990s and held that position until he was appointed Director-General in 1998.^[1]

In 1999, Shadreck Chipanga was replaced by Elisha Muzonzini.^[3]

Politics

Shadreck Chipanga joined active politics in 1999. He contested and won the Makoni East parliamentary seat in 2000. His seat was one of several of the 2000 parliamentary seats challenged in the High Court by the MDC. In October 2003, Paddington Garwe ruled in favour of the MDC and Chipanga was technically removed from his parliamentary seat on the grounds of violent intimidation during the election but Chipanga retained the seat because he filed an appeal.

Chipanga won by fewer than 100 votes than Nicholas Mudzengerere. The hearing took place in 2001 and it took Garwe, two years to come to a decision.^[1][4]

In 2005, Chipanga was reelected into Parliament as Makoni East member of Parliament. During his tenure in parliament, Chipanga was appointed as one of two deputy chairs of the observer delegation of the parliamentary forum of the Southern African Development Committee, the 14-nation regional political bloc, to the elections in Namibia.

He also chaired the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice. He also served as the Zanu-PF Manicaland chairman, a position he left following his elevation into the Central Committee.^[2]

Chipanga served as the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs.^[1] He was appointed in 2003 by Robert Mugabe.^[4]

In a Government Gazette dated 27 March 2015, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) confirmed the appointment of Shadreck Chipanga as Senator for Manicaland Province replacing Kumbirai Kangai who died in 2013.

Zanu-PF Manicaland Province nominated Chipanga to take over the seat. The nomination effectively locked out Gideon Gono who had been earmarked for the seat. The then Zanu-PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo had written wrote to ZEC to inform the electoral body to allow the former Gono to take up the Senate seat.

But ZEC informed Khaya Moyo that Gono was not eligible for the post because he was not registered as a voter in Manicaland ahead of the 2013 elections. ZEC also said attempts by the Registrar General’s Office to transfer Gono from Harare were unconstitutional.^[5]

Role In Electoral Violence

Shadreck Chipanga was identified by witnesses in a High Court case as being the driver of a pick-up truck carrying ZANU_PF supporters who disembowelled a young man identified as Francis Chigonzo on the bonnet of the vehicle for having MDC pamphlets during the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections.

Chigonzo pushed his entrails back into his stomach and walked to the nearest clinic. He was able to give evidence in the case but died of his wounds soon after.

Chipanga told the court he gave Chigonzo's mother ZIM$500 which was about US$3 for medical expenses.^[4]

References