An all-rounder, he bowled right-arm fast-medium and played in the middle order in test matches as an aggressive left-handed batsman.
[1] Despite making sporadic appearances for Zimbabwe at international level, he made substantial contributions with both bat and ball in crucial match situations.
When Zimbabwe gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, Johnson's father accepted a job as a farming consultant at Howick in Natal,[4] and the family emigrated to South Africa.
He then moved to Grahamstown to pursue his studies at Kingswood College, and opened the bowling alongside Brett Schultz for the Eastern Province schools team.
His talent was later spotted and identified by former international player Kepler Wessels, who helped him win a bursary to the University of Port Elizabeth, where he pursued a BA degree in Industrial Psychology.
He made his first-class debut in the 1989–90 season in the Castle Bowl competition playing for Eastern Province B against the Natal B side.
[3] He had a breakthrough 1993–94 season for Natal where his all-round performance against Border, including a century and five wicket-haul, helped him to secure a place in the South Africa A lineup for their tour of Zimbabwe in 1994–95.
[4] He missed out on playing in the bilateral home ODI series against India in October 1998 due to a delay in receiving his Zimbabwean passport, but this was granted and Zimbabwean citizenship was restored by the authorities just 48 hours prior to the start of the one-off Test match at Harare.
[13] He was also influential in Zimbabwe's qualification to the Super Six stage of the 1999 World Cup,[3] winning three Man-of-the-Match awards during the tournament.
[21] After the Zimbabwe's tour of England in 2000, Johnson announced he would be returning to South Africa and joining Western Province to play in the Supersport Series.
[22][23] He departed due to disputes over payments from the ZCU,[24] and also had a strained relationship with the then head coach of Zimbabwe, David Houghton.
He scored 819 runs at an average of 63 in 12 first-class matches, including two centuries, finishing the season as the county's high run-scorer.
In 2010, online news stories circulated claiming that Johnson was to be appointed as the India cricket team's official yoga instructor during their tour of South Africa.