Messages From Zimbabwe

National Healing Minister and Movement for Democratic Change founding president Gibson Jama Sibanda has died, his party announced on Tuesday.

He was 66.

Sibanda, who led the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions for more than a decade, died at Bulawayo’s Mater Dei hospital on Monday night, his party’s deputy secretary general Priscilla Misihairabwi said.

Misihairabwi said Sibanda had been in and out of hospital over the last year quietly battling cancer.

“We have lost a gentle giant, a father figure and quiet spirit who was hardly ruffled by many things,” Misihairabwi told New Zimbabwe.com by telephone from Harare.

Sibanda never re-married after his wife Ntombizodwa died in 2003 following her own public battle with cancer.

Sibanda, a former welfare secretary of the liberation movement, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), was detained without trial for three years by the former white minority government alongside other nationalist leaders between 1976 and 1979.

In 1984, he was elected president of five amalgamated railway trade unions. He studied and obtained a Diploma in Industrial Labour Relations, and would later become vice president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in 1988.

He became ZCTU president a year later – a position he held until 1999 when he became the interim leader of a ZCTU-initiated political party, the Movement for Democratic Change.

Sibanda led the party for close to six months leading up to its first congress in February 2000. He was elected deputy president at the congress as Morgan Tsvangirai, the former ZCTU secretary general, assumed leadership.

In parliamentary elections that year, Sibanda became an MP after defeating Dumiso Dabengwa in Nkulumane.

In 2001, Sibanda was arrested on charges of inciting violence. The case was withdrawn in January 2003 before plea.

In November of the same year, an attempt was made on his life and those of MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube, elections director Paul Themba Nyathi and treasurer Fletcher Dulini Ncube.

A gunman opened fire on them with a machine gun while they stood outside the MDC’s regional office in Bulawayo. No arrests were made.

Sibanda’s convoy was also attacked in Kuwadzana, Harare, when he and other MDC leaders went to address a rally during the presidential election campaign in 2002.

On April 1, 2003, Sibanda was arrested once again, this time on charges of seeking to overthrow President Robert Mugabe’s government. The charges arose from a nationwide job boycott supported by the MDC between March 18 and 19.

He was kept in police custody for seven days before being granted bail. He was remanded four times in the ensuing year before the charges were withdrawn before plea on February 16, 2004, because the State was unable to produce any evidence.

Fissures began appearing in the MDC party in 2005 when leaders agonised over whether to field candidates in a newly-established Senate. Sibanda, along with the powerful secretary general Ncube and other leaders advocated participation, arguing that the party could not give ground to Mugabe’s Zanu PF in constituencies where it had MPs – mostly in Matabeleland.

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, took the line that the Senate was an unnecessary drain on the national fiscus and the party should boycott.

The party split that year and Sibanda briefly led a breakaway MDC before standing down at the February 2006 congress which saw the entry of Arthur Mutambara into local politics as president. Sibanda became his deputy.

He lost his parliamentary seat to Thamsanqa Mahlangu from the Tsvangirai-led MDC formation in the 2008 general elections.

In August 2008, he stood for the post of President of the Senate with the support of colleagues from the Tsvangirai-led MDC formation but lost to Zanu PF’s Edna Madzongwe.

Sibanda became a member of the Senate in 2009 following his appointment as a Minister of State for National Healing in the new coalition government formed between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara.

(Source)

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has sent a message of condolence to the family of the late Chief Khayisa Ndiweni who died on Wednesday.

In his condolence message, PM Tsvangirai said he had learnt the death of the paramount chief with great sadness.

“It was with great sadness that I learnt of the death of Chief Ndiweni yesterday. “Chief Ndiweni was an embodiment of natural leadership and an unwavering custodian of the values and virtues of our tradition,” he said. “He was eloquent, open-minded and true to his word and deeds and knew no political figures but Zimbabweans,” PM Tsvangirai said.

He said the loss was not only for the family but for the nation at large. PM Tsvangirai said the traditional leaders of whom Chief Ndiweni has been a prominent personality over several years, play an important role in nation building, promotion of cultural cohesion and stability.

“On behalf of the government of Zimbabwe and my own behalf, I join the Ndiweni family not in mourning but in celebrating a life of exemplary leadership well lived.”

Chief Ndiweni died in his sleep in the early hours of Wednesday morning at his homestead in Ntabazinduna, about 30km from Bulawayo.

His death came three days after celebrating his 97th birthday at his homestead. He became chief in 1939 at the age of 26 and served as a traditional leader for 71 years old.

A fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe’s rule and the unitary system of governance, Chief Ndiweni was a strong proponent of federalism.

He is the former leader of the United Federal Party and took part in the Lancaster House Conference in 1979 which led to the independence of this country.

He is survived by his wife, 11 children, 30 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and one great- great-grandchild. Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.

(Source)

Another Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) high ranking official, Mayor of Gweru Councilor Desmond Fungayi Mufunde has died

Councilor Desmond Fungayi Mufunde died in Harare on Sunday, a day after the death of seasoned politician and senator for Gweru urban, Patrick Kombayi.

The mayor died at the age of 61 and is survived by his wife and four children, according to a statement by Gweru Town Clerk Daniel Matawu.

“We are in great sorrow to learn of the death of our mayor who died on Sunday evening after a long illness. The council joins Mufunde in mourning the deceased because their loss is ours. Funeral arrangements will be announced in due course,” he said.

He said mourners were  gathered at 120 Umsungwe Avenue in Ridgmount in Gweru. The deceased was scheduled to be buried on Wednesday.

(Source)

Zimbabwe football legend Shackman Tauro has died on Wednesday, just 11 days shy of his 50th birthday.

The former CAPS United and Zimbabwe national striker passed away at Harare’s St Anne’s Hospital Wednesday night after a short illness.

Popularly known as “Mr Goals”, Tauro is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to have graced Zimbabwean football. Zifa chairman Wellington Nyatanga, who announced Tauro’s death on Thursday, described him as a “legend” and a “hero” of local football.

Tauro’s heyday was during the 1970s, when his extraordinary goal-scoring instincts illuminated the local soccer scene while he was turning out for CAPS Rovers, who later changed their name to CAPS United.

Tauro helped CAPS Rovers to gain promotion into the then first division in 1977, five seasons after the club’s management had spotted his potential while the team was still playing in the lower divisions.

In fact, Tauro joined CAPS in 1972 when the club was in third division and at that time he was receiving his primary school education at Rusvingo School in Harare’s high-density suburb of Highfield.

And on his very first outing for CAPS, Tauro, whose soccer career blossomed at Zororo Youth Centre in Highfield, grabbed a hat-trick.

That was a remarkable achievement because Tauro had only turned 14 a few weeks before the match.

In fact, he was lucky to make the team on that day because one of CAPS Rovers officials had objected to his selection because of his youth.

His role in CAPS United’s success was first recognized by his becoming the Soccer Star of the Year in 1979.

After that, he was one of the first players to don the senior national team jersey soon after the attainment of Independence on April 18, 1980.

A then hard-up youngster from Highfield, Tauro was the toast of the newly-born independent State of Zimbabwe.

He hammered in two goals in Zimbabwe’s 6-0 trouncing of Mozambique, and nodded home the winner in the four-nation Independence Tournament final against Zambia on April 21, 1980 at Rufaro.

In the match against Zambia, Tauro grabbed a moment of soccer glory for himself and the nation when he headed in Zimbabwe’s winning goal in the final minute to send an estimated 40,000 crowd ecstatic at Rufaro.

Tauro’s most memorable footballing moment, though, came on June 2, 1977, when he banged in six goals against Kaizer Chiefs during a North Zone Select team match against the South African glamour side.

Tauro became popularly known as “Mr Goals” in 1982 after he notched 28 goals to clinch the Mr Strong Top Goalscorer of the Year award.

Tauro won numerous caps for Zimbabwe, scoring more than a dozen goals for the senior national side until a knee injury forced him to hang up his boots in 1988.

May 1996 saw Tauro moving on to the now-defunct Premiership side Arcadia United, joining them as head coach only for him to rejoin CAPS United in June 1997.

He subsequently had spells with lower division side Circle United and the women’s national team - the Mighty Warriors.

At the time of his death, Tauro was involved in running Premiership side Shooting Stars.

(Source)