Obituary: ZANU-PF founding member Tekere dies

Obituary: ZANU-PF founding member Tekere dies
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Wed 08 June 2011, 17:20 CAT

EDGAR Tekere, a Zimbabwean liberation hero and founding member of ZANU-PF who
later became the party’s biggest critic, has died. He was 74. Family spokesperson Dr Ibbo Mandaza confirmed yesterday that Tekere died on Tuesday afternoon in his hometown of Mutare after a long battle with prostate cancer.

“He had been unwell for some time. His condition had been worsening since sometime last year. Comrade Tekere was discharged from hospital on Saturday, but was readmitted on Monday after his condition further deteriorated. He died at 1:30 pm today Tuesday,” Dr Mandaza said.

Despite having been a founding member of ZANU-PF, Tekere always courted controversy with the party, criticised President Robert Mugabe for his policies, and was expelled twice from the party.

At the time of his death, he was closer to Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC than he was to ZANU-PF.

He is known in some circles as having tried to stop President Robert Mugabe from establishing a one party state.

Tekere was instrumental in forming ZANU in 1963, the party that later came to be known as ZANU-PF.

In 1964, he was arrested for political activism and spent 10 years in prison together with President Mugabe.

Upon their release in 1975, they crossed into Mozambique to launch the guerilla warfare that was to usher in Zimbabwe's independence five years later. During the liberation war, Tekere served on the ZANU high command and became secretary-general.

At independence in 1980, he became Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning. He personally invited reggae star Bob Marley to perform at the country’s Independence celebrations.

Marley even stayed with Tekere during the tour.

Tekere was relieved of his duties as a minister after making a series of comments against government policies in 1981, but retained his post of ZANU-PF secretary-general.

He was later to serve as ZANU-PF's Manicaland provincial chairman until 1987. Tekere was expelled from ZANU-PF in 1988 for accusing President Mugabe of deviating from liberation principles, and later formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement.

He stood against President Mugabe in the 1990 presidential elections, but lost. Tekere then stayed out of the political limelight until he was re-admitted into ZANU-PF in 2006 when he indicated his desire to stand as a senator.

But, the following year, a ZANU-PF national disciplinary committee recommended that he be fired from the party.

Since then, and at every opportunity, Tekere claimed President Mugabe had deviated from the aims of the liberation struggle.

He accused his former colleagues in ZANU-PF of corruption, betraying democracy, and mismanaging the economy.

He authored a book A lifetime of struggle in which he documents his cacophony with ZANU-PF officials and policies.

In 2008, he declared his support for independent presidential aspirant Simba Makoni, a former finance minister who challenged President Mugabe.

In 2009, he was guest of honour at the 10th anniversary celebrations of Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC in Mutare.

ZANU-PF yesterday said Tekere’s contribution to the liberation struggle deserved to be recognised.

ZANU-PF national chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo, said the party had been saddened by Tekere’s death.

“As ZANU-PF, we are saddened to hear of Comrade Tekere’s untimely demise. He played a pivotal role in the struggle to liberate the country. No one can deny him this fact,” he said.

But Moyo indicated that Tekere had fallen out favour because he was inconsistent with party principles.

Party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo described Tekere as a “patriotic man who unfortunately decided to leave the party.”

“It was unfortunate that he left us to form Zimbabwe Unity Movement, but such things happen. That incident robbed us of a man we were with in the trenches.

When we measure an individual, we must take all the factors from birth to death. Some of us believe he contributed immensely to the struggle for Zimbabwe and deserves recognition in the annals of the liberation struggle,” Gumbo said.

The ZANU-PF politburo is yet to sit to officially declare Tekere a national hero so that he can be buried at the National Heroes Acre, a shrine reserved for liberation war heroes. But local newspapers, including the state-owned The Herald, have already declared him a hero.

Tekere is survived by a wife and a daughter.