Four years after Robert Mugabe’s death, a 46-year-old man has come out to say he is the biological son of Zimbabwe’s first president who was left out in the cold because Mugabe said he was afraid to court the anger of his wife.
Sources revealed there are processes that are taking place behind the scenes to formalise the relationship and these involve elders within the Mugabe clan.
Information at hand indicates the son, Tonderai Gabriel Mugabe, was born of one Hilda Maeka – whose Chimurenga name was Cde Paidamoyo – and the late statesman in 1977 at Chimoio Base in Mozambique at the height of the liberation struggle.
The mother passed on in 1995 following hypertension-related complications and, upon the instructions of the late President, was accorded liberation hero status.
Reports also say the late president’s sister, Bridget, before her own death had confirmed the existence of Tonderai Gabriel and sought the support of her daughter, Lawrencia, to acknowledge same.
Lawrencia, on February 11, 2020, reportedly signed an affidavit which reads: “I Lawrencia Machengedza Mugabe…declare that Tonderai Maeka was born at Chimoio base in Mozambique in 1977. I was there when he was born Gabriel Tonderai Mugabe.”
Lawrencia is alleged to have taken care of Tonderai as a toddler until he was put into a sub-camp specifically for nursing mothers and young ones.
“We separated when the mother took him to Cde Fay Chung (who was in charge of the sub-camp). After the war, we thought he and his mother had died because we could not find them. Later on, he was found by Tete Bridget who is my mother. He is the son of Robert Gabriel Mugabe,” added Lawrencia in the affidavit.
After the war, mother and son are reported to have returned home where they settled in Glen Norah where Tonderai Gabriel attended Shiriyedenga School.
“My mother was one of the first people to get into business after the war. She had a number of knitting machines which she used to generate income.”
Upon her death, however, the young boy dealt in scrap metal to raise money for his tuition. Neither his mother, grandparents or kin bothered to reveal to him who his biological father was until one day when he visited Zanu PF headquarters and was summoned by Tete Bridget who indicated to him her brother was the father.
“Tete Bridget then told me that her second child (Lawrencia) went to war and she shared some information about what happened there with tete, adding that she is in constant conversation with her brother about that information.
“I was kept a secret because of fears that Amai Sally Mugabe could be angry at the president (Mugabe). Information that I have gathered shows that she was going to be receptive since she was unfortunate not to have children after Nhamodzenyika’s passing,” said Tonderai Gabriel.
By the time Sally died, Mugabe had two children with Grace Marufu and the pair wedded later. Mugabe is on record as saying that he entered into a relationship with Grace due to pressure from his mother Bona who insisted that she wanted grandchildren.
Tonderai’s maternal grandfather Thomas Maeka said the family eventually gave up trying to get Mugabe to acknowledge his son after efforts at engagement proved futile.
“Tonderai’s mother worked in one of the offices in Mozambique that is when she met Robert Mugabe.
“We did not know the father of the baby she brought from the war because she was secretive about it. We only got to know about it when Tonderai met some senior party officials in Harare. From there, I had numerous interactions with one of Mugabe’s close relatives but nothing materialised.
“He always promised me that he was going to talk to Mugabe about the issue but he would get evasive each time I made follow-ups. We eventually kept quiet.”
