11 Facts About Josiah Tongogara

Josiah Magama Tongogara was a prominent Zimbabwean guerrilla commander during the Rhodesian Bush War.

Josiah Tongogara was the brother of the current Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's first wife, Jayne.

Josiah Tongogara attended the Lancaster House conference that led to Zimbabwe's independence and the end of white minority rule.

Josiah Tongogara was one of several rebel commanders operating from outside of Rhodesia's borders to free the country from white rule.

At the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979, Josiah Tongogara was a crucial "moderating" force, according to Lord Carrington, the then British Foreign Secretary, who chaired the talks.

Six days after the Lancaster House Agreement was signed Robert Mugabe, on the Voice of Zimbabwe radio station, conveyed "an extremely sad message" to "all the fighting people of Zimbabwe": the forty-one-year-old Josiah Tongogara was dead, killed in a car accident in Mozambique on 26 December 1979.

Josiah Tungamirai, the ZANLA High Command's political commissar, relates that on the night of the fatality, he and Tongogara had been travelling with others in two vehicles from Maputo to Chimoio.

Josiah Tongogara said that as he was doing so, Tongogara heaved a huge sigh and died in his arms.

Smith wrote, "I made a point of discussing his death with our police commissioner and head of special branch, and both assured me that Josiah Tongogara had been assassinated".

In 2005, Josiah Tongogara was honoured on a stamp of Zimbabwe.

In 2012 it was revealed that Josiah Tongogara's wife was not receiving war veteran's widow benefits.