Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Chief Khayisa Ndiweni dies

Chief Khayisa Ndiweni dies
by Staff Reporter
05/08/2010 00:00:00

CHIEF Khayisa Ndiweni, Matabeleland’s most eminent chief, died in his sleep on Wednesday morning, his family announced. He celebrated his 97th birthday on Sunday.

Family spokesman Wilson Bancinyane Ndiweni told reporters: “He woke up at about 3AM saying he was feeling cold and hungry. They made porridge for him, which he ate and went back to sleep.

"That was the last time he talked to anyone up until he was discovered dead late in the morning.”

Hugely respected in Matabeleland, and a revered figure among his people in Ntabazinduna, Chief Khayisa was among the leaders who attended the 1979 Lancaster House Conference in London where Zimbabwe’s independence from white minority rule was negotiated.

Ndiweni, who became chief at the age of 26 in 1939, attended the conference as leader of his short-lived United National Federal Party.

A leading proponent of a federal style government, Ndiweni had a brief dance with Chief Chirau’s Zimbabwe United People’s Organisation in the late 1970s and became a member of Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government which suffered a still-birth.

Labels: CHIEF KHAYISA NDIWENI (ZIMBABWE), DEVOLUTION

posted by MrK @ 4:18 AM