Перренс Шири: Биография и политическая карьера зимбабвийского военачальника

Zimbabwean air officer (1955–2020)

Perrance Shiri (born Bigboy Samson Chikerema; 11 January 195529 July 2020) was a retired Zimbabwean air officer and government official who served as Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe from 1 December 2017 until his death on 29 July 2020. He was the commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe and member of the Joint Operations Command which exerts day by day control over Zimbabwe's government. Perrance Shiri was a cousin of former President Robert Mugabe. He called himself "Black Jesus", because according to an anonymous claim on the BBC Panorama documentary "The Price of Silence", he "could determine your life like Jesus Christ. He could heal, raise the dead, whatever. So he claimed to be like that because he could say if you live or not." On 30 November 2017, Shiri was appointed Minister of Agriculture by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. On 18 December he was promoted from Air Marshal to Air Chief Marshal upon retirement.

From 1983 to 1984, the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade, under Shiri's command, was responsible for a reign of terror in Matabeleland. During the slaughter, thousands of civilians were killed and thousands more were tortured. Despite this, in 1986, Shiri was granted a place at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. In 1992, Shiri was appointed the commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, taking over from Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Shiri was reported to have organised farm invasions by war veterans. In 2002, in response to the subsequent food shortage, Mugabe dispatched Shiri to South Africa to purchase maize. This undertaking was backed by a credit note for the equivalent of £17 million from the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi. In 2008 some Zimbabwean lawyers and opposition politicians from Mutare claimed that Shiri managed military assaults on illegal diggers in the diamond mines in the east of Zimbabwe.

In the days before the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election Shiri, along with other Zimbabwean Defence chiefs, held a press conference where they stated that defence and security forces had been deployed across the country to maintain order. In a remark aimed against the Movement for Democratic Change, the defence chiefs stated that it would be a criminal act for anyone to declare himself the winner of the election. They maintained that such a statement must only be made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

In 2002 the European Union barred then Air Marshal Shiri from entering the EU and on 6 March 2003, George W. Bush ordered the blocking of any of Shiri's property in the United States. It has been speculated that the assassination attempt was a response to Shiri's attacks on illegal diamond miners in 2008 or because of his role in Matabeleland in the 1980s. In October 2013, Shiri's son, Titus Takudzwa Chikerema, died at the age of 21.

Shiri was influential in orchestrating the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état which removed Mugabe from power. On 30 November 2017, Shiri was appointed Minister of Agriculture by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. On 18 December he was promoted from Air Marshal to Air Chief Marshal upon retirement.

Shiri died on 29 July 2020, after being hospitalized the day before. He was 65; local news sources say his death was due to complications from COVID 19 during the COVID 19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa described Shiri as a “longtime friend and colleague” and “a true patriot.”