Joseph Chinotimba and his violent past

War vets leader Joseph Chinotimba might be well known for being the butt of
jokes which mock his broken English and clownish behavior, but today on our
Crimes of the Past series we look at his trail of violence, rape and murder.


Chinotimba, a former security guard with the Harare City Council, rose to
infamy in 2000 when he declared himself ‘commander in chief’ of farm
invasions. From guarding beer halls and other municipal facilities he
suddenly became the ‘poster boy’ for the violent land invasions and appeared
several times on state television leading violent mobs of war vets and ZANU
PF militants onto farms.

When ZANU PF selected Chinotimba to be their parliamentary candidate for the
Buhera South seat in the March 2008 harmonized election, an even more
violent side to his character was to emerge. Although MDC-T candidate Naison
Nemadziva eventually won the seat, it was not before Chinotimba had
unleashed a variety of terror tactics, that included mob violence, group
rape and even murder.

According to eyewitness testimonies, on the 5th May 2008 Chinotimba, in the
company of his cousin, raped an MDC-T member in Buhera. He threatened Idah
Munyukwi with a gun before raping her twice.

Chinotimba also encouraged his violent mob to use rape as a tool. Under his
instruction a group of about 21 ZANU PF thugs gang raped Memory Mufambi, an
MDC-T supporter in Ward 18 of Buhera.

Girl Child Network founder Betty Makoni dealt with the case, having provided
shelter for Mufambi in Botswana. She described in detail how Chinotimba’s
mob raped the woman. She said they went to her home looking for her husband
who was a prominent MDC-T activist and when they could not find him they
started beating up his wife (Mufambi) until she collapsed.

Makoni said the mob of ZANU PF youth militia and war vets then took Mufambi
to their torture base where after initially putting a gun to her head they
took turns to rape her over the course of a week. Mufambi says she lost
count of how many men raped her but it was so violent she suffered severe
internal injuries. She was only released after one of the men involved
became ashamed at the extreme violence and pleaded for her to be released.

Mufambi is still in and out of hospital suffering the long term effects of
what happened to her.
In Botswana Makoni and her group had provided counseling for the Mufambi
family as the woman’s ordeal continued with the fact that her husband wanted
to divorce her because of the rape. Makoni told SW Radio Africa that the
Mufambi case is one of 200 cases documented by a team of international
lawyers and taken to the African Commission on Human and People Rights. The
same dossier is reported to have been sent to the International Criminal
Court (ICC) for possible prosecution.

Meanwhile in the Ward 27 area of Chapanduka and also in 2008, Chinotimba led
a group of ZANU PF thugs who beat to death an MDC-T activist known as
Sibamba. In another incident on the 18th May 2008, Chinotimba’s truck was
used in the attack on Choukuse Nyoka Mubango in Ward 26. Mubango was axed to
death in full view of his wife and five children.

In June 2008, undercover BBC reporter Ian Pannell described a face-to-face
encounter with Chinotimba, saying: “His car blocked ours. He got out with
three other men, striding towards us, wearing a T-shirt with two
Kalashnikovs and Robert Mugabe's face printed on it. His eyes were
unflinching, a large, brooding man, full of hatred, smelling of alcohol and
full of threats.”

Chinotimba is said to have leaned into the car, demanding to know what the
journalists were doing in the area. “It was only fast and fluid talking by
two South African colleagues we were travelling with that persuaded him to
leave us alone. I will never quite believe that he really bought what felt
like a terribly flimsy cover story about travelling to see friends, but he
did eventually let us pass,” Pannel wrote.

Chinotimba, with the help of his violent mob, took control of the area
behaving like a mafia boss. They rampaged through Buhera, targeting numerous
rural peasants like Admore Chibutu, Petros Murinda, Tongeyi Jeremiah, and
Mangwanani Zvichapera. They burned down their homes, beat them up, killed
and stole their livestock.

At the moment Chinotimba is living happily in a plush home in Marlborough,
with his round the clock security.