Constantine Chiwenga and Air Force Commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri are consolidating their power bases...
The veterans' frustration is compounded when they learn that commanders such as Air Marshal Perence Shiri and General Vitalis Zvinavashe have commandeered several farms each for personal use...
Air Marshal Perence Shiri; Commander Zimbabwe Air Force; with Zvinavashe and Mnangagwa Shiri forms the triumvirate that controls the military and security services and also has interests in the regional diamond trade; he set up a military aircraft charter company Avient with Mnangagwa and a British Army Major Andrew Smith; Shiri seethes about British sanctions on the Air Force and says Zimbabwe will never again buy from British Aerospace (which has been stopped by Whitehall from supplying spares to the Hawk jets); Shiri's main political problem is his role as commander of the North Korean-trained Five Brigade which massacred thousands of Ndebele in the Gukurahundi campaign in the early 1980s; a recent hard-hitting BBC documentary on the massacres suggests that charges could be brought against Shiri...
The executive apex At the apex of power in Zimbabwe is a civilian-military alliance: President Mugabe who consults with his military commanders on most critical national and regional issues; Mnanagagwa who maintains a key security role (he has kept his intelligence network from his time as Security Minister in the 1980s) despite being appointed speaker of parliament; commander of the defence forces Vitalis Zvinavashe; Army Commander Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga; and Air Force Commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri (AC Vol 41 No 22)...
Commander Zimbabwe Air Force: Air Marshal Perence Shiri (Zezuru) is Mugabe's favourite to take over from Zvinavashe...
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Lieutenant General Vitalis Zvinavashe Air Force Commander Air Marshall Perence Shiri and Army Commander Gen...
Ghosts from Matebeleland Mnangagwa also has the support of Air Marshal Perence Shiri the air force Commander who is tipped to take over from Zvinavashe as head of the Armed Forces...
' Zimbabwe's Air Force Chief Perence Shiri who is widely held responsible for organising the brutal suppression of opposition in Matebeleland in the early 1980s is furious at the British embargo...
For the first time since the notorious Fifth Brigade's operations in Matebeleland under the command of Air Marshal Perence Shiri mutinies and military plots are seriously discussed...
The Chief of Staff Vitalis Zvinavashe is Karanga but directly controls no soldiers; army commander Constantine Chiwenga and air force commander Perrence Shiri are Mugabe men...