Professor Tony Martin Dies at 70
Trinicenter.com Reporters
January 17, 2013
Professor Tony Martin
Dr. Tony Martin, former Professor Emeritus at Wellesley College, has passed over tonight, January 17th 2013 in Trinidad & Tobago at West Shore Medical Hospital. Trinidadian-born Dr. Martin taught at the University of Michigan-Flint, the Cipriani Labour College (Trinidad), and St. Mary's College (Trinidad). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, Brown University, and The Colorado College and also spent a year as an honorary research fellow at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad.
Professor Martin has written, compiled or edited 14 books including Caribbean History: From Pre-Colonial Origins to the Present (2012) published by Pearson Education; Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist, Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No. 1, Or, A Tale of Two Amies (2007), Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance (1983), and the classic study of the Garvey Movement, Race First: the Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1976).
His work on Marcus Garvey was featured on the curricula of many African studies programmes around the world and he was a well-known lecturer in many countries.
Labels: AFROCENTRICITY, OBITUARIES, TONY MARTIN
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‘Mudenge died a happy man’
Sunday, 07 October 2012 00:18
Tinashe Farawo
Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Dr Stan Mudenge was in jovial mood on the day he collapsed and died in Masvingo, his long-time subordinate has disclosed.
Dr Washington Mbizvo, the permanent secretary in Dr Mudenge’s ministry, last night revealed that he had never seen the leading historian as excited as he was on the day he died.
“It seems like he was indirectly saying farewell,” he said.
“He was a happy man; he was in jovial mood; he was excited; although he was always like that, what was happening in Masvingo was something else; he was saying goodbye, I have fought my good fight,” he said.
Before travelling to Masvingo where he was due to address the 39th Southern African Society for Education Conference, Dr Mudenge was in Bulawayo for the commissioning of St Patrick’s Hotel.
And Dr Mbizvo says the late Minister Mudenge was in high spirits in Bulawayo as well.
“We had a good time in Bulawayo, the students and everyone who was there. I am convinced he died a happy man. He had resolved the Great Zimbabwe University issue, with the new team he set up expected to start work on Monday (tomorrow).
“I had known Cde Mudenge for years and worked as his permanent secretary for eight years, but I can tell you that what was happening in Bulawayo and Masvingo was out of this world,” he said.
Dr Mbizvo described Dr Mudenge, who he always referred to as VaZimuto, as a “living god” of African history who was passionate about the welfare of students.
“He was so passionate about the students, especially those who are underprivileged, and, as a result, programmes like cadetship were put in place.
“He would always say, ‘saka munoti varombo havachafundi’ (so you say the poor should not get educated?). He was an intellectual par excellence and indeed one of the few remaining living gods of African history,” he said.
“He was a visionary and a strategic thinker who looked at issues in a global way. Education was the way to his heart; very soon every province will have a state university, that’s why he had recently acquired a 25-hectare piece of land to build a school in his rural home.
“He would always say to me that the school is ‘my gift to the people’.”
Dr Mbizvo hailed Cde Mudenge as a cistern of wisdom and a source of inspiration to many.
“The man had exceptional talent; he was a moving encyclopaedia of African history. The man would inspire people and was highly appreciative, always generous with comments and I can tell you that very few politicians are like that,” he said.
A long-serving civil servant, Dr Mbizvo hailed Cde Mudenge as one of the few ministers who appreciated the role of permanent secretaries.
“Maybe it’s because that he was one of the first black secretaries in 1980. He knew his stuff, some ministers want to be heads of ministries, he was not like that, he respected division of labour,” he said. Dr
Mudenge is survived by wife Mildred and three children — Thando, Pedzisai and Rumbidzai.
At the time of his death, he was the Member of Parliament for Masvingo North and Zanu-PF secretary for external relations.
Labels: OBITUARIES, STAN MUDENGE
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A long farewell to Comrade Betty
By The Post
Fri 28 Sep. 2012, 12:30 CAT
The days pass, each year giving birth to its successor. What has passed becomes the past as time erodes the memory of what was living experience.
In their recalling, old joys expand into enlarged pleasure. Old wounds fade away into forgotten scars or linger on as quiet pain without a minder.
Those who give generously their lives, their talents to lighten our moments of darkness, do not want the embarrassment of the enthusiasm of our gratitude.
Those who brought us intolerable pain and took away our days of light insist that nothing should be recalled, lest we impose on them the pain of guilt and on ourselves the pain of our memories. And so what was slides away as though it never was.
Comrade Betty Kaunda suffered a lot. She bore the scars of our independence struggle and those of the liberation struggles of our entire region. We talk of the sufferings she went through as a mother and as a wife of the supreme leader of our independence struggle as if it was such a small thing. We talk about her charcoal burning undertakings as if it was such a small thing. All has passed as though it never was.
Comrade Betty had to endure long periods of time waiting for her incarcerated husband, imprisoned comrade. She had to fend, single-handedly, for her children. She had to endure all those long days and nights without Comrade KK, who was in prison. All lingers on only as a nightmarish image of what might have been.
Comrade Betty suffered and suffered quietly. Even after our independence, keeping the family together and participating in many national activities with all quietness and humility was still not such an easy thing and small thing. All has passed, as though it never was.
In the last few years we have congregated at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross with greater frequency to bid farewell to the heroes and heroines of our independence struggle, the founders of our Republic, the builders of our nation, paying our last respects to the fallen heroes and heroines of our nation from a generation now reaching the end of a long and heroic struggle. Again, those from that generation, who are singled out to stay the longest, have to bear the pain of seeing their comrades go. One after the other, the stars that brightened the firmament of a generation have been extinguished. Time has swallowed up our heroes and heroines.
Not anywhere in this country stand a statue and a monument which speak to us and all future time to say - once upon a time, our country was blessed to have as its citizens these who, though dead, are brought to life by every day's dawn that portends fulfilment for all the people of our homeland. They too slide into the past as though they never were.
Today, Comrade Betty lies in her small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice. When she passed on, yet another great Zambian heart ceased to beat. While she lived, she refused to allow her people to be abused, to be humiliated, to be oppressed in all sorts of ways. She elected to oppose those who sought personal benefit by abusing the people and their resources. And last year she took a quiet but very strong political stand against the corrupt, the abusers and ensured that they left the stage.
She gave those who were downtrodden and despised pride in themselves as glorious human beings, by instilling in them the knowledge that they held the gift of progress in their hands.
Today, Comrade Betty lies in her small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice.
Comrade Betty spoke quietly of hope, of human dignity, of the cruel eras of small-minded people scared of their own shadows, of the magnanimity of those who were mistreated by those who claimed to be born-again.
She worked quietly to persuade us to understand the cruel eras of the small-minded people, teaching us to assert our own humanity by respecting the rights of all our people to life, liberty and happiness. She showed us by example that we need no high-sounding titles to discharge our obligation faithfully to serve the masses of our people.
Even as some sought to present her and her husband and comrade as objects of ridicule, those of us who knew who they were and what was their worth to the masses of our people, determined that we, like them, would continue to be informed by our knowledge and consciences rather than the voices of those who sought to play various and insensitive games.
Today, Comrade Betty lies in her small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice.
While she lived, her humility, her self-effacing ways, her constant humour, her loyalty to principle, the certainty her very being carried of the inevitability of the realisation of our hopes, brought light and joy to our days of despair. The gods themselves would lose their patience with us if we permitted that time should persuade us that this jewel on our crown has lost its sparkle, merely because the soil we tread will have taken into its bosom the small wooden house that Comrade Betty now occupies.
Whatever the direction we turn our ears, the same message reaches us - the struggle that Betty and her comrades started and waged for the total liberation of our people is not yet complete. It is still aluta continua!
The voices that come at us from the great expanses of our beautiful land tell us that we must assert that what was, was.
The lived experiences of the times that have passed are to us and to future generations very valuable. The heroes and heroines, whom Comrade Betty has joined, like her, live among us, fighters still for the liberation of all our people. The cause for which they fought, sacrificed and lived has not run its course. We still have many challenges - poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance and so on and so forth.
Today, Comrade Betty rests in her small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice. And yet we can hear her as she says:
Do not allow the shadows to deceive you nor the long road you have to travel, to discourage you! Refuse that selfishness should take possession of your hearts and minds and deprive you of what is most precious to us - the lived gift of humanism! Listen carefully to the strident voice of your adversaries and continue to strive as you have done over countless years, to remain loyal to what is good and just! Above all, as you call for God's benediction in the interest of our homeland and the masses of our people, act together to free the peoples of our continent from oppression, from war, from poverty, from greed, from lies, deceit, humiliation and contempt!
Today, Comrade Betty rests in her small house of wood, cold and still and without a voice.
Today, we all join Comrade KK, Comrade Betty's husband, their sons and daughters, their grandchildren and great grandchildren and the rest of the family, to put to rest a patriot who was to all of us variously, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a colleague, a comrade and a leader.
All of us say, together, thank you for being what you have been. We say thank you, twatotela, luitumezi, zikomo, twasanta, tunasakilili, tunasakilila, twalumba for the way you have enriched all our lives.
We appeal to you that you bear with us that we might not have understood as well as we should have, how much what you thought and said and did gave meaning and direction to our own lives.
Tell those whom you join that, whatever the problems, still we progress.
Farewell dear comrade! Rest in peace!
Labels: BETTY KAUNDA, OBITUARIES
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Namibia mourns Mama Betty
September 26, 2012
By CLAVER MUTINTA
BETTY Kaunda was amongst Freedom Fighters recognised during the Africa Freedom Day celebrations.
NAMIBIAN President Hifikepunye Pohamba has sent a message of condolences to former President Kenneth Kaunda following the death of his wife, Betty, last week.
Mr Pohamba says he learnt with shock and deep sorrow of the sudden passing of Mama Betty.
“The sudden departure of Madam Betty Kaunda robs you personally and the family of a beloved companion, a caring mother and grandmother,” he said.
He said the death of Mama Betty equally constitutes “a great loss to the fraternal of people of Zambia and many friends abroad whom she treated with compassion over the years, including many of Namibians hosted in Zambia during the struggle for national liberation.”
Mr Pohamba conveyed his deepest sympathies on behalf of his government, people of Namibia, and his family to Dr Kaunda and the people of Zambia.
“May you be strengthened and consoled as you deal with this difficult time of mourning, in the knowledge that she served with humility and kindness until her final hour,” he said.
And former President of Namibia Sam Nujoma says he learnt about the death of Mama Betty with utmost grief and profound distress.
He said Mama Betty, Dr Kaunda and other revolutionaries played a pivotal role in the liberation of Africa.
Mr Nujoma said together with Dr Kaunda, Mama Betty dedicated her life to dismantling the apartheid regime in South Africa and total liberation of Africa.
“In this regard, a tribute to Comrade Mama Betty Kaunda will be incomplete without reference to the role she played in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the white South Africa colonial regime in Namibia,” he said.
He said Mama Betty will be remembered by the current and future generations of Zambian nationals, African continent and beyond as a fearless freedom fighter and an indefatigable liberator.
He said Namibia remains indebted to the government and people of Zambia for their “unflinching and unwavering support during the armed liberation struggle”.
Labels: BETTY KAUNDA, HIFIKEPUNYE POHAMBA, OBITUARIES
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Fare thee well Mama Betty Kaunda – OBITUARY
September 24, 2012
By TENTANI MWANZAH
THE name Kenneth Kaunda readily comes to mind in relation to African liberation struggles and efforts aimed at resolving Africa’s woes and other ills in the world. He is an icon voted by the BBC in 2010 as one of the foremost 50 African icons of the previous 50 years, the only Zambian in that bracket. Call of duty in fulfilment of obligations to realise these goals has made it impossible for him to be a man who stays long in one place. He has been kept busy with public life since joining active politics more than six decades ago. A normal family life has eluded him ever since.
Typically, he was away from home on an international mission in South Africa on Wednesday September 19, 2012 when devastating news reached him that his dear wife of 66 years, Mama Betty Mutinke Kaunda nee Banda, went to join her ancestors in the early hours of that day. She was 83. She died of causes related to her diabetic condition in Zimbabwe while on a visit to her daughter Musata who lives there with her husband, James. Kaunda wept. Who wouldn’t?
The previous day, September 18, 2012, in Durban, South Africa, Kaunda was a recipient of yet another award in recognition of his monumental work in bringing about peace and understanding among peoples of the world, the Mahatma Gandhi award. Mama Betty Kaunda has been the pillar of strength behind her husband, enabling him to score the many successes of great magnitude for all the six and half decades they have been together. She was invaluable to him.
He apparently recognised this fact and in the last years, he resorted to publicly sing in her honour as if to make up for his indebtedness to her. An accomplished guitarist, he would pick up his guitar, amidst cheers and ululations, during public functions and take his audience down memory lane to the days of his courtship with her. His favourite ballad, Pagan Moon, originally taken from the 1931 film Safe in Hell, had catchy words:
“I remember that night in your arms/Underneath the Pagan moon /Beneath the light on a pillow of palms/ underneath the pagan moon/…Maybe this was a sweet maiden’s prayer/ To your eyes and your lips and your hair/ Only the dark came too soon/ As we watched our pagan moon ,” Apt.
It would indeed have been untold ingratitude on the part of her acclaimed husband to ignore the pivotal role the great woman of substance played in his life. Incidentally, it was his mother Helen Tengwera Kaunda, who identified and recommended her for a wife to him. Let Kenneth Kaunda speak for himself: “With unerring judgement, my mother selected her from amongst all the other girls in the area as my future wife and marriage arrangements were concluded between the parents.”
It was only in June 1946, the very year marriage ceremonies took place, that he first set his eyes on the love of his life. He was on his way to Mufulira for a scout training camp. Passing through Mpika, his cousin arranged for him to meet her. “I had no doubt when I first saw her that my mother had made a wise choice and I have never had reason since,” he fondly recalls. Kaweche Banda, for that was the name of her father, was a prominent businessman with a shop near the Mpika Boma and it was here that she was born on November 17, 1928. Banda with his wife Milika Sakala Banda, had been close friends of the Kaunda family for many years.
The immortal Kwame Nkrumah, that miracle of a man, noting that human memory is short time without number reminded us that “independence does not come on a silver platter”. His Chinese counterpart the Great Helmsman, Chairman Mao Ze dong, had a couple of years earlier made his oft-quoted statement “A revolution is not a dinner party or doing embroidery or writing an essay … it cannot be so refined…” For Kenneth Kaunda, his contribution to the liberation fight entailed periods of long absence from home; more so the time he was organising secretary for the Northern Province, covering a wide area. Today one would be talking of most of Muchinga, Northern and Luapula provinces. It was a herculean task.
The responsibility of raising up the children squarely rested on the shoulders of Mama Betty Kaunda, who ably took up the challenge and lived beyond expectations. Kaunda never forgets that there was a time as organising secretary, having been away from home for quite some time, organising, mobilising and educating the people, he grew a beard.
Upon reaching home his first-born son, Panji, failed to recognise him; afraid, he ran away to his mother only to tell her “Mayo, kwaisa icimuntu.” She must have laughed uncontrollably when she discovered that ‘icimintu’ in question was after all her one and only husband, also known as bashi Panji -father of Panji. When in the company of my friend Bina Moyo, MP, I went to commiserate with him in 1998 after his release from the unjust detention, which started on Christmas Day of 1997, he suffered at the hands of the Chiluba regime, he narrated this story if only to show what he had gone through in life and what Mama Betty Kaunda meant to him. In giving him encouragement, I reminded him of the words he had told me earlier uttered by a Katete freedom fighter each time they were faced with many a difficult situation. “Ndiye umuna uyu, mwamuna afunika kuti nthawi zina (in this particular case) mwana wobala yeka azimuyiwala” (Thats what being a man entails. It is important for a man that there should be times when his own biological child should fail to recognise him).”
Police raids at their residence were not infrequent. In 1955, after one such raid at home extended to his office as secretary-general of the African National Congress, he, together with ANC president Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, were sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labour for being in possession of a copy of a London-produced magazine-Africa and the Colonial World – considered as a prohibited publication in the territory by the authorities. Every person in Britain was free to read the magazine but not so for Africans in the British Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia! This was Kaunda’s first taste of prison.
Mama Betty Kaunda was the first to recognise the coming of the unwelcome white visitors, who happened to be policemen and she alerted her husband who was resting in bed at the time. He psychologically prepared himself for any eventuality.
The March 1959 police raid following the banning of the militant Kaunda-led Zambia African National Congress (ZANC), a breakaway group of the ANC, was more serious. It saw him rusticated to Kabompo, incarcerated in Lusaka Central Prison, the notorious Chimbokaila, before being transferred to Salisbury (Harare) prison. He was only released in January 1960.
These uncertainties in politics and the attendant hardship of the times led Mama Betty to sometimes resort to unorthodox survival strategies for the sake of the family. There was a time she went into such mundane chores as charcoal burning to raise income for food and children’s education. What a great woman! There was no subsistence allowance for active politicians.
Materially and financially, life became better after 1962, when United National Independence Party (UNIP) won seats in the Legislative Council, as Parliament was called then. Kaunda steadily rose to become Minister of Local Government, Prime Minister and first President of the Republic of Zambia on October 24, 1964.
They moved to Government House, renamed State House after Independence.
Mama Betty Kaunda became Zambia’s first First Lady on Independence Day in 1964. She was a trail blazer in that role and had to be careful how she treaded on the new ground. Being conscientious, the path she took and followed was that of being in the background most of the time. It was rare to see her addressing gatherings of any significance, least of all those which could have political connotations of any sort. Contrary to what many detractors may assert, Mama Betty Kaunda, growing up under a climate not too favourable to the education of women, attained the highest levels of education available to a woman. Unlike most Northern Rhodesia women of her age, it is noteworthy that she had remained in school up to Standard IV. Through her notable hard work, she earned a little pocket money when she was identified to work during hours when she was not in school as a ‘nurse girl’ for the District Commissioner’s wife. It is on record that she was one of only two females in the top class of her school and held her own with the boys. In 1944, she secured a coveted place at the famous boarding school at Mbereshi to do her two years’ training as a teacher. There she received her training in cookery, dressmaking and other domestic science subjects.
Mama Betty Kaunda’s style in approaching the role of First Lady was not out of place. It was in line with a good number of First Ladies on the continent, mostly those whose husbands were titans of freedom. The style of the African First Lady of that time was different from that of the American First Lady. There was a silent golden rule making it almost taboo for the African First Lady of the post-independence period to be given to standing on the Hustings making speeches advancing political causes. It is inconceivable to imagine Fathia Rizk, Kwame Nkrumah’s Egyptian-born wife, on the podium championing agendas to increase the approval rating of the husband notwithstanding the fact that she was at a top Egyptian University when Kwame Nkrumah married her in December 1957.
Tanzania’s Maria Nyerere and Uganda’s Miria Obote were no exception. Publicly, they kept to themselves and left politics and delivery of speeches to their eminent husbands, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Apollo Milton Obote, respectively.
Not even Mama Ngina, the wife of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, could afford to break rank and to behave differently. That was the style of the African First Lady. The dress code was also predictable as there was an attempt to give it as African outlook.
In Zambia, the change came in 1991 with the change in government when UNIP, the country’s ruling party for 27 years, from the inception of independence, was swept out of power by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). There was a feeling that there had to be a complete break with the past. So it was that the new First Lady starting with Vera Chiluba has been for all intents and purposes an American-style First Lady.
Solid a woman as she was, barely three years into independence, she was faced with a serious no mean challenge of her life in 1967. Age 39, doctors diagnosed her with diabetes. Health experts say diabetes is a condition, NOT a disease. It is instructive to note that, not one prone to desperation with adverse news, she was able to manage diabetes for the latter 45 years of her life. Prominent Lusaka lawyer Sibanze Simuchoba was impressed with her “unparalleled stoicism” in the manner she handled her diabetic state. Kaunda has often revealed and expressed admiration that she was “a strong-willed and courageous woman,” who used to inject herself to receive her regular dosage of insulin. Jocularly, he would add that “she could not rely on me to do it. Me I am a coward”.
Rodgers Mapenzi Simuchoba and Chileshe Mwashinka, both members of the Pan Africanist Committee (PAC), remember her for her dignity and graceful nature but especially her unwavering support for freedom fighters. They echoed South Africa’s Jacob Zuma who has stated unequivocally that “she was our mother who looked after so many South Africans in exile”. The Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, sent a message of condolences to the Kaunda family acknowledging Mama Betty Kaunda’s commitment in serving the country.
THE Freedom Fighters.
After UNIP’s hold on power ended in 1991, with her husband, she left State House gracefully. In 1992, Kaunda relinquished his position of president of UNIP, a position he had held since January 1960 and went on his first retirement from active politics.
In March 1993, something terrible happened. UNIP, now in opposition with only 25 parliamentary seats in a 158 seat parliament, surprised even itself by remaining a vibrant political party with deep-rooted grass root support. This was not in line with the desires of the Chiluba regime which aimed at seeing UNIP to its grave sooner rather than later. People woke up one morning to information that a sizeable number of prominent UNIP leaders and some sympathisers were rounded up after a declaration of a State of Emergency in what came to be known as the Zero Option saga. It was alleged that the Zero Option was a UNIP plot to render Zambia ungovernable. Among those detained were Rupiah Bwezani Banda, Rabbison Chongo, Bonnie Tembo, William ‘Tekere’ Banda, Ackim Zimba(who died in detention), Muyoka Lemmy Sulwisha, Muwanei, Peter Lishika, Cuthbert Nguni, Stephen Moyo, Patrick Goma, Stanley Muntanga, Ilukena and Mama Betty Kaunda’s son, Ngwawezi Kaunda, commonly known as Wezi.
Over the years, because of what she had gone through she had developed a thick skin and could withstand all kinds of pressures. Somehow, she could not stand the sad experience of seeing her son, Wezi, widely considered heir-apparent, behind bars on flimsy grounds. In the very early days, the Zero Option saga took its toll on her. She suffered a stroke, massive to subsequently confine her to the wheelchair till her final days. That notwithstanding she lived for another close to 20 years. She possessed rare resilience.
Prison Graduate (PG), a term introduced by Kwame Nkrumah, was a lofty title of honour among freedom fighters symbolising a new birth and baptism, having been to prison fighting for the liberation of the continent, was considered a mark of distinction and people were not filled with terror at the sight of prison walls. Former Nigerian military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo coined his own Post-Prison Graduate (PPG). Explaining those eligible for PPG status, he said it applies, mostly, to those heads of State, who, having retired gracefully from office, find themselves in prison for political reasons. To surmise what he said, “I have been saying that people like Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and others are Prison Graduates (PG). But for Kaunda and myself, we are Post-Prison Graduates (PPG) because we found ourselves in prison on trumped-up charges after leaving the presidency.” Kaunda spent most of his 1997/98 prison spell under house arrest at his Kalundu residence with Mama Betty. Virtually, Mama Betty was also a prisoner at Kalundu Prison. Arguably, she too was entitled to the distinction of PPG as described by Obasanjo.
The title Mama (Mother of the nation) was hard-earned in struggle and to all it comes naturally because she deserves it.
Eternal glory to the memory of Mama Betty Kaunda-Mother of the nation!
Labels: BETTY KAUNDA, OBITUARIES
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KK weeps
By Mwala Kalaluka, Fridah Nkonde and Christopher Miti
Fri 21 Sep. 2012, 10:30 CAT
DR Kenneth Kaunda yesterday wept uncontrollably when he arrived at the KK International Airport on an Air Zimbabwe plane carrying the body of his 83-year-old wife, Betty.
And Egyptian Ambassador to Zambia Salah El-Sadek says Mama Betty's death is not only a loss for Zambia but for the whole of Africa.
Meanwhile, President Michael Sata yesterday 'warmly' received opposition MMD leader Nevers Mumba and led him into the airport's VIP lounge as they awaited the arrival of Mama Betty's body from Harare.
A crowd of government officials, family, friends and political leaders and cadres from the PF and opposition UNIP were on hand to receive Mama Betty's body when the Air Zimbabwe plane, called Mbuya Nehanda touched down at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport at 13:55 hours.
As he alighted from the plane and walked down the steps towards the airport apron, Dr Kaunda, 88, was seen trying to contain his emotions but broke down a few steps down as freedom fighter Grey Zulu moved forward to hug him and others followed suit.
President Sata looked on as others like Mama Chibesa Kankasa consoled a weeping Dr Kaunda for several minutes. As military personnel moved to the cargo compartment of the aeroplane to collect Mama Betty's casket, President Sata went to receive the body.
The Air Zimbabwe crew came out of the plane carrying wreaths while a team of journalists and camera people from the neighbouring nation followed the event from the plane's steps.
Dr Kaunda's security detail and government protocol officers failed to restrain those that were surging forward to console the first Republican president as a military band played solemn music.
And Ambassador El Sadek said in an interview after consoling Dr Kaunda that Mama Betty was a symbol of greatness not only for Zambia but for the whole of Africa.
"It's a sad moment. This is life but these people are special, you can't find them," Ambassador El Sadek said. "They are symbols not just for Zambia but for the whole of Africa. It's a very sad moment especially for a great man like Dr Kaunda."
Earlier, President Sata received a tumultuous applause from excited PF cadres at the airport after he went to accord them a surprise greeting. The cadres mobbed President Sata whilst raising the PF symbol.
Later at around 12:52, President Sata came out of the VIP lounge and welcomed Mumba who was in the company of his two new vice-presidents - Michael Kaingu and Dr Brian Chituwo. The two greeted warmly and President Sata ushered Mumba inside the VIP lounge.
UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema was one of the notable absentees at the event but the party's Mazabuka parliamentarian, Garry Nkombo, was present.
Mama Betty's body was later driven to the Kaundas' home in Lusaka's State Lodge.
And the Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of The Post which had honoured Mama Betty with the Mama Julia Chikamoneka award in 2008 says freedom fighters should be appreciated when they are alive.
PFC chairperson Leah Kabamba said in an interview yesterday that it was evident that freedom fighters were becoming fewer.
"It is unfortunate that we most of the times fail to celebrate freedom fighters to the extent we should. We fail to celebrate the people that liberated our country to maximum capacity. We should learn to appreciate those that liberated our country while they are still living so that they could also have time to tell us how it was then because once they are gone, there will be no one to tell us," Kabamba said.
She said Mama Betty was indeed a freedom fighter who did not give up but stood by her husband's side.
"Mama Betty valued family life and was a very hard working woman. We wish the Kaunda family strength during this difficult time," said Kabamba.
Chikondi Foundation president Bishop John Mambo described Mama Betty as a great mother of Africa who made her husband achieve political freedom for Zambia and the rest of the continent.
"We are grateful to God for Mama Betty's humility and service to this nation and the continent. It would have been difficult for Dr Kaunda to achieve what he did if it were not for Mama Betty's support. She is our mother and we will live to celebrate her life as a great leader," said Bishop Mambo.
"Let's not mourn her on political lines, but give her a mourning that befits a hero. We will forever be grateful to God for that humble life."
Mama Betty was found dead in a room at her daughter's house in Borrowdale Brook, Harare, on Wednesday morning.
She had been in Zimbabwe for the past two weeks visiting her daughter Musataa Kaunda Banda and her husband Jimmy Banda.
Musataa is a counsellor at the Zambian Embassy in Harare.
Family spokesperson Tilyenji Kaunda said Mama Betty would be buried in Chinsali.
"She had a long history of diabetes and high blood pressure. We thought it was getting better. We are told she went to sleep yesterday (Tuesday) and they just discovered her dead in the room in the morning (Wednesday)."
Dr Kaunda and Mama Betty celebrated their 66th marriage anniversary in August at a moving function in Lusaka.
Meanwhile, Dr Kaunda sang a love song dedicated to Mama Betty when receiving the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation in Durbam, a short while before he learnt of her death.
According to a statement issued by the Zambian High Commission in Pretoria, the song talked about how Dr Kaunda would never forget the first kiss he shared with Mama Betty.
Labels: BETTY KAUNDA, KENNETH KAUNDA, OBITUARIES
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Ethiopia's Prime Minister Zenawi dies in Brussels
21 Aug 2012 08:17 - Aaron Maasho
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died from a sudden infection while recovering from an undisclosed illness at a hospital in Belgium.
The African nation's state-run television reported that: "Prime Minister Zenawi suddenly passed away last night. Meles was recovering in a hospital overseas for the past two months but died of a sudden infection at 11:40."
Speculation that Meles (57) was seriously ill grew after he failed to attend an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last month.
State media said Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn would be the acting prime minister.
Ethiopia's government said last month that Meles was taking a break to recover from an unspecified condition. Diplomats in Addis Ababa had said Meles was being treated in Brussels from an undisclosed illness, while others said he was in Germany.
Meles has been in power since ousting Mengistu Haile Mariam's military junta in 1991. He served as president from 1991 to 1995, when he became prime minister.
He won praise in the West for helping spur economic growth and for his army's support against al-Qaeda-linked militants in neighbouring Somalia.
But he also has been accused of crushing dissent, using national security concerns as an excuse to silence opposition figures and journalists. The government has dismissed those accusations.
Revolutionary struggle
Born Legesse Zenawi in Tigray Province in the north of the country in 1955, he later took the name Meles in honour of a comrade who died in the revolutionary struggle.
He studied in Addis Ababa and at universities in Britain and the Netherlands, turning to political activism while still a student.
Following the deposal of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and the establishment of a communist dictatorship under Mengistu Haile Mariam – known in Ethiopia as the period of "Red Terror" – Zenawi joined the newly founded Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
With assistance from the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), at a time when Eritrea was still part of Ethiopia, the opposition movement succeeded in toppling Mengistu's regime in 1991 as its Soviet backing dissipated.
Zenawi became prime minister after elections in 1995, holding office for 17 years, despite frequent criticism of the way the elections were conducted.
His alliance with the EPLF fall apart and in 1998 a two-year war broke out between Ethiopia and the newly independent Eritrea, costing two of the world's poorest countries tens of millions of dollars and the lives of some 100 000 people.
The two nations continue to be arch rivals and there are occasional violent incidents along the border.
Inside Ethiopia, disturbances in 2005 were put down with more than 200 deaths and the mass arrest of opposition leaders.
Targeting political opponents
International organisations have frequently accused the Ethiopian government of the serial abuse of human rights, and have criticised a new anti-terrorism law used to target political opponents.
But Ethiopia has also experienced an unprecedented economic boom under Zenawi, in part owing to massive inflows of foreign aid and investment, and despite repeated episodes of drought and famine.
The country in 2008 had the fastest growth rate of any non-oil-dependent economy in Africa.
Poverty in both rural and urban areas remains rife. Ethiopia is ranked by the UN as one of the least-developed nations in the world.
The country's military under Zenawi was also active in lawless neighbouring Somalia, sending troops to help fight Islamist groups, and gaining the prime minister strong ties to Western leaders.
Zenawi had announced that he would not be seeking re-election in 2015. – Reuters, Sapa
Labels: ETHIOPIA, MELES ZENAWI, OBITUARIES
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Mugabe author found dead
11/08/2012 00:00:00
by AP
JOURNALIST and author Heidi Holland, who chronicled the rise of President Robert Mugabe from freedom fighter to what critics describe as a power-obsessed leader, died Saturday at her home in South Africa, police said.
Police spokesman Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale said a gardener found Holland's body Saturday in her home in Melville, a suburb of Johannesburg, dead from an apparent suicide. She was 64.
Mogale said there were no signs of foul play, nor any items missing from her home to suggest a burglary.
Holland grew up in Zimbabwe, then white-controlled Rhodesia, but described in her 2008 book "Dinner With Mugabe" her sympathy for the future president and others fighting to wrest control of the nation back to black Africans.
She recounted first meeting Mugabe in 1975 at a dinner, and having to leave her toddler son at home alone to drive him to a train he was about to miss.
Holland interviewed Mugabe in November 2007, after he ordered white-owned farms seized, which saw hundreds of thousands of black farm workers lose their jobs and nearly a third of the population flee.
[Total BS. - MrK]
Critics say later in his rule, Mugabe unleashed soldiers and ruling party members on opposition supporters in bid to retain power.
[Total BS. - MrK]
Though Zimbabwe is now run by a unity government, it remains fragile and there are few signs that Mugabe, who has ruled the nation since 1980, will give up power willingly.
"I think he's in denial, I think he can't face what he's done in Zimbabwe because that isn't what he intended to do," Holland told The Associated Press in 2008.
"He did genuinely, I think, want to be the savior of his people, the liberator of an oppressed nation."
Holland recently published "100 Years of Struggle: Mandela's ANC," a book about South Africa's governing African National Congress.
She has had articles published in a number of newspapers as a freelance journalist, and had an occasional column in Johannesburg newspaper The Star.
She is survived by sons Jonah Hull, a correspondent for satellite news channel Al-Jazeera English, and Niko Patrikios.
Labels: HEIDI HOLLAND, OBITUARIES
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Mundia Sikatana dies
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sat 16 June 2012, 13:24 CAT
FORMER cabinet minister Mundia Sikatana has died. University Teaching Hospital (UTH) public relations manager Pauline Mbangweta confirmed the death of the former agriculture minister.
"He Sikatana was confirmed dead at 22:15 last night Thursday in the ICU Intensive Care Unit," Mbangweta said without disclosing the cause of death.
Mbangweta said Sikatana was admitted to UTH on Tuesday and was transferred to ICU the following day. Sikatana saved as agriculture and foreign affairs minister during the regime of late president Levy Mwanawasa.
Labels: MUNDIA SIKATANA, OBITUARIES
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COMMENT - What on earth is 'the bush war for independence'? Only the rhodesians call the liberation war 'the bush war', because they don't want to recognize Zimbabwean independence and because they lost. So NewZimbabwe's anonymous 'staff reporter' goes for the compromise. Compromise with whom? Disgraceful and unworthy of Naomi Nhiwatiwa.
War hero Naomi Nhiwatiwa dies
23/04/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
INDEPENDENCE war hero, charity worker and former cabinet minister Naomi Nhiwatiwa has died in the United States. Nhiwatiwa, a former advisor to the World Health Organisation's Africa region, died at her home on April 12 in South Bend, Indiana – three days before her 71st birthday.
At the height of
the bush war for independence in the late 1970s, Nhiwatiwa attended the first Zanu PF Women's League meeting at Shai Shai in Maputo with the likes of Julia Zvobgo and Mavis Chidzonga.
At independence in 1980, she became one of only five female MPs from the Zanu PF side – and along with Joice Mujuru and Victoria Chitepo, they were the only women in cabinet.
Mujuru was Minister of Youth, Sports and Recreation; Chitepo the Deputy Minister of Education and Culture while Nhiwatiwa became Deputy Minister of Post and Telecommunications.
Armed with a PhD Intercultural and Diplomatic Communications (1979), Masters Degree in Counseling (1972) both from the University of New York at Buffalo and a Masters Degree in Human Growth and Development from Wayne State University in Michigan, she quit parliament in 1988 to join the United Nation's Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as the Senior External Relations Officer for ESARO, in Nairobi, Kenya.
She was then promoted to World Health Organisation as Director External Relations and Program Promotion - Africa Region in 1993 in Brazzaville, Congo.
In 1998 she was again promoted to the position of Senior Advisor to the United Nations in New York, USA.
After retiring from the United Nations in 2001, she worked as a Consultant on HIV/AIDS, and as a Visiting Professor for the Department of Communications at Pepperdine University in California.
Devout Christian Nhiwatiwa founded the Zerapath charity aimed at helping HIV-Aids orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“I have to do something about it, however humble it may be,” she said of her charity work. “If everybody does something, it will surely make the difference.”
A funeral service is due to be held at the First Seventh Day Adventist in South Bend, Indiana, at 10AM on April 29.
Her family has decided she will be buried at the Southlawn Cemetery in South Bend on the same day.
Labels: LIBERATION, OBITUARIES
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COMMENT - I didn't know he was still alive. Goes to show how far Algeria drifted from their revolution.
Algerian founding father Ben Bella dead at 95
North African nation decares eight days of mourning for iconic leader of struggle for independence from France.
Last Modified: 12 Apr 2012 06:04
Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria's first president and one of the leading figures in its independence struggle against France, has died at the age of 95.
Ben Bella, whose death comes just weeks after the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence, passed away at his family home in Algiers on Wednesday, Algerian state media reported.
No cause of death was reported, but Ben Bella had twice been treated for respiratory problems at the military hospital of Ain Naadja.
"Today we lost one of modern Algeria's bravest leaders," said Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a message of condolence read on state television as he announced eight days of national mourning.
Ben Bella will lie in state at Algiers' People's Palace from noon on Thursday, with his funeral due to take place on Friday, state media said.
A former soldier in the French army, Ben Bella was a key figure in Algeria's years-long revolt against French rule, serving time in prison until his release as the north African nation gained independence in 1962, and becoming president in 1963.
But he was overthrown in a military coup in 1965 and kept under house arrest until 1980. After a subsequent decade in exile in Switzerland, he was pardoned in 1990 and returned to Algeria.
Soldier and footballer
Ben Bella was born in 1916 to a peasant family in Marnia, on Algeria's border with Morocco. He joined the French army in his late teens, rising to the rank of senior warrant officer, and playing top-flight football for Olympique de Marseille.
He fought with distinction with the Free French Forces in Italy during World War II and won five French decorations including the prestigious Military Medal.
But Ben Bella turned against French rule after the war and was elected municipal councillor for the anti-colonialist "Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties".
When the movement was declared illegal, Ben Bella went underground. Arrested in May 1951, he was interned but staged a dramatic escape two years later.
He fled to Cairo where he was among the architects of the 1954 uprising which began Algeria's war of independence.
Despite being imprisoned by the French, he was the acknowledged head of the independence movement throughout the revolution and became an icon for the global anti-colonial movement.
Elected president of the newly-independent nation, he ruled extravagantly and erratically for less than three years before being toppled by Colonel Houari Boumedienne, the head of the army.
Until Boumedienne's death 13 years later, Ben Bella became a "non person" in Algeria, as no public mention of his name was allowed in Algeria's state-controlled media.
Boumedienne's successor Chadli Bendje freed Ben Bella from more than a decade of detention without trial, ultimately allowing him to go abroad with his wife Zora and their two adopted daughters.
He headed the opposition Movement for the Democracy in Algeria Party, which competed in the aborted 1991 elections, winning just two per cent of the vote.
His party was banned in 1997, but he continued to live in Algeria, often condemning government policies.
Labels: INDEPENDENCE, OBITUARIES
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Government declares state funeral for Nakatindi
By Bright Mukwasa
Sun 08 Apr. 2012, 13:29 CAT
THE government yesterday declared a state funeral for the late Princess Nakatindi Wina who died at Milpark Hospital in South Africa on Thursday. And former finance minister Ngandu Magande says the death of Princess Nakatindi was a big loss to her family and the country.
In a statement yesterday, Secretary to the Cabinet Evans Chibiliti announced that late Princess Nakatindi, who served the country in various capacities including that of minister of community development and social welfare between 1993 and 1994, had been accorded a state funeral by government.
Princess Nakatindi was evacuated to Milpark Hospital in South Africa by government in March, 2012 for specialist treatment.
"The government has sent the Minister of Gender and Child Development Inonge Wina to South Africa to be with the bereaved family while arrangements are being made in consultation with the family to bring her body back home as soon as possible," Chibiliti said.
Princess Nakatindi's body is expected in the country on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Magande, who is president of National Movement for Progress, praised Princess Nakatindi's and her family's contributions to the political developments of the country.
Magande also said the couple's love had demonstrated how family values could contribute to national development saying it was from strong families that a sound nation could be built.
Labels: EVANS CHIBILITI, NG'ANDU MAGANDE, OBITUARIES
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A part of me has been cut off - Wina
By Mwala Kalaluka and Kombe Chimpinde
Sat 07 Apr. 2012, 13:30 CAT
A part of me has been cut off, says veteran politician and one of the key leaders of Zambia's independence struggle Sikota Wina following the death of his wife, Princess Nakatindi, on Thursday night. Wina described Princess Nakatindi, 63, who died away at Johannesburg's Milpark Hospital as a loving wife and patriot.
According to the family spokesperson, Princess Nakatindi's son Wina, and the Zambian High Commission in South Africa, Princess Nakatindi passed away at around 22:00 hours on Thursday following a heart-related operation.
"She was so much a part of me. I feel a part of me has been cut of," Sikota said.
"She was very close to me for more than forty years. It is something that I am finding hard and difficult to comprehend."
Sikota said Princess Nakatindi took him not only as a husband but as her total responsibility, saying he would find it difficult to cope without her.
"She was so many things to many people. I will remember her as a loving mother who gave me five children. At my age of 81, she completely took me as her responsibility," Sikota said.
"A part of me has left me."
He said Princes Nakatindi was so passionate about the country.
Sikota said Zambians should remember her as a great woman that contributed to the struggle for independence and the political dispensation of Zambia.
Zambia's High Commissioner to South Africa Muyeba Chikonde said the mission recognised Princess Nakatindi as an important figure in the country's history.
High Commissioner Chikonde said the Zambian High Commission in South Africa would do its best to lighten the Wina family's burden following Princess Nakatindi's demise.
"We have received news of her death with great shock and our heartfelt condolences go to her family. As regards details of the transportation of her body, the family has asked for a post-mortem and further details of the transportation will be issued later," said High Commissioner Chikonde.
"And also considering that this is an Easter Holiday which is being celebrated world over and South Africa is not an exception."
And family spokesman Wina said the family was devastated by his mother's death.
Wina said the family was devastated by her sudden death and thanked President Michael Sata for the timely manner in which Princess Nakatindi was evacuated to South Africa after it became evident that she required urgent specialist medical attention.
"Arrangements are being made for Mr. Sikota Wina and body of the deceased and members of the family who accompanied Princess Nakatindi to South Africa to return home to Zambia at the earliest opportunity.
Funeral gathering is at the farm," said Wina.
Princess Nakatindi, a member of the Barotse Royal family, was a politician, who served the country as cabinet minister in the MMD government of Frederick Chiluba.
She was a member of parliament for Kanyama Constituency in Lusaka on the MMD ticket and was at one time member of parliament for Sesheke Central on the UPND ticket.
Princess Nakatindi was during Chiluba's regime arrested and detained at Kabwe's Mukobeko Maximum Prison on tramped-up treason charges related to Captain Steven Lungu's 1997 attempted military coup and her health was affected since then.
Labels: HEALTHCARE, OBITUARIES, SIKOTA WINA
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African leaders mourn Mutharika, condole Malawians
By Charles Kufa, Nyasa Times
April 6, 2012
African leaders have started sending condolence messages to Malawians through acting President, Her Excellency Joyce Banda following the death of Head of State Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday April 5.
Kenyan President Mwayi Kibaki and Botswana President Ian Khama were the first leaders to send the condolences through Her Excellency Banda. Kibaki in a message extended “heartfelt condolences and sincere sympathies” to the government and people of the Republic of Malawi as they try to come to terms with the loss of their ruler.
Botswana’s Khama expressed “deep sorrow” on the death of the 78-year-old President.
Mutharika suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday morning and reportedly died soon after 1pm.
As government officials and cabinet ministers are locked in the meeting on the way forward, reports indicate that the process to bring back the President’s body has started.
Mutharika’s dead body remains at Milpark Hospital morgue where the process of embalming is expected to take place before the remains are flown back to Malawi for burial.
Meanwhile, Malawi’s flagship daily The Nation has criticised government’s handling of Mutharika’s condition.
“It is time to do things well through provision of timely information,” the paper said, adding that the government “could have done better than the sketchy statements broadcast on state radio – as almost everyone was left guessing”.
Former President Bakili Muluzi has called for a constitutional order and allows the Vice President Joyce Banda to assume the office of the President.
Labels: BINGU WA MUTHARIKA, MALAWI, OBITUARIES
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President Sata mourns Mine Workers Union of Zambia President Oswell Munyenyembe
TIME PUBLISHED - Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 2:08 pm
President Michael Sata has said that he is deeply saddened over the death of Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) president Oswell Munyenyembe. Mr. Munyenyembe, 59, died in a car crash on the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriageway on Tuesday afternoon. President Sata described the late Munyenyembe as a rare breed and highly valuable and respectable trade unionist.
“Oswell was someone with exemplary trade union skills and it was always a joy to see him doing what he knew best – presiding over negotiations and always accomplishing what his members expected of him,” President Sata said.
“Therefore, I have no doubt in my mind that the effect of this sudden loss is already being felt by both the employees and the management in our robust mining sector. His bravery, courage and maturity even on crucial moments is simply peerless or first-class.”
The President said Munyenyembe has been a beacon of hope, courage and bravery for the labour movement since the commencement of his trade union career in 1983.
“During his many years in the trade union movement, his dedication and selfless nature was always something that many passionately admired and esteemed. Even outside his work, Oswell carried himself as a kind, honest and a man of great honor and strength,” the Head of State said.
President Sata said genuine patriots of mother Zambia will never forget Munyenyembe’s great strides, efforts and contributions to the labour movement.
“Indeed, he will be greatly missed and we are all saddened by his passing and our thoughts and prayers are with the Munyenyembe family,” the President said.
“We pray that the Almighty God gives them comfort and fortitude as they face these immense difficulties.”
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, MUZ, OBITUARIES, OSWELL MUNYENYEMBE
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Former Bank of Zambia Governor David Phiri has died
TIME PUBLISHED - Monday, January 16, 2012, 5:27 pm
Former Bank of Zambia Governor, Academician and veteran sports administrator, David Phiri has died. Mr Phiri , a Rhodes Scholar, a fellow of the Rhodes Foundation and the Beit Trust in Zambia, died in Lusaka this morning, aged 74.
And President Michael Sata has said that he was deeply saddened at the passing of Mr Phiri. In his message of condolences to the Phiri family, the President observed that the late Mr Phiri rendered a great service to the nation across many spheres where he demonstrated exceptional skill and talent.
“David was a multi-talented person who demonstrated excellence in the many assignments he executed during his tour of duty. Therefore, his irreplaceable and distinguished services will be greatly missed,” President Sata said.
The President recalled that the late Mr Phiri’s life can be told through many facets across many disciplines especially through his service in the mining sector where he started his career, sports fraternity and banking and economic circles where he played a pivotal role to promote investments in the country.
“David’s career in both the public and private sector is a shining example that must inspire younger generations to work hard and maintain high levels of integrity and dedication to the service of humanity,”the President says.
“I remember David from his early days as a management trainee in the mining industry to the apex of his career as head of the Central Bank, he led by example as a committed employee with an impressive work ethic. This, he also demonstrated in the academia when he served as Chairman of the University of Zambia Council.”
The President said one of the greatest memories of the late Mr Phiri will be his strong resolve to restructure the Bank of Zambia and the clean-up of the physical environment at the Central Bank premises.
“On behalf of the Zambian government and indeed on my own behalf, kindly accept our heartfelt condolences on this tragic loss.”
Labels: BOZ, MICHAEL SATA, OBITUARIES
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Fr Miha dies
By Abigail Chaponda, Darious Kapembwa in Ndola and Salim Dawood
Sun 30 Oct. 2011, 11:50 CAT
MISSION Press director Fr Miha Drevensek has died. Secretary general of the Franciscan Friara in Zambia Fr Matthews Mumba confirmed the death yesterday. Fr Mumba said Fr Miha, 65, was taken ill to Mirama Hospital in Ndola yesterday morning following a heart attack, but died around 15:00 hours.
And Get Involved Zambia executive director Fr Frank Bwalya said the death of Fr Miha came with a great sense of shock and loss. Fr Bwalya said to him, Fr Miha was a courageous priest, a prophetic voice and a parent.
"Fr Miha is a person that helped me materially, as well as his family and yet he conducted himself in a very humble way. Even when he criticised leaders like late Levy Mwanawasa and late Frederick Chiluba, he still went to their houses and they remained friends," said Fr Bwalya.
"For me, I will not consider it as death but I will consider it as Fr Miha going back to the Lord."
Fr Miha was also editor of The Challenge and Icengelo magazines.
Labels: CATHOLIC CHURCH, FRANK BWALYA, MIHA DREVENSEK, OBITUARIES
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CIO boss Thuthani dies
Friday, 30 September 2011 02:00
Herald Reporter
DEPUTY director external in the President's Department, Cde Nothando Thuthani, has died. She was 57 and has been declared a liberation war heroine. Cde Thuthani died on Wednesday morning at West End Hospital after a short illness. She was the highest ranking woman officer in the Central Intelligence Organisation.
In a statement yesterday, Minister of State for National Security Sydney Sekeramayi said, "The country and the President's Department have been robbed of a dedicated revolutionary cadre who served her country with distinction, dignity and honour demonstrating unquestionable patriotism and lifelong loyalty to the national cause. She will be greatly missed."
CIO Director General Retired Major General Happyton Bonyongwe, described Cde Thuthani as a leader of "rare qualities" who defended Zimbabwe's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
"While the organisation is at loss, the service is determined to honour a great woman. Allow me to pay tribute to this great woman who was a mother, an intelligence officer, a diplomat, a leader of rare qualities, a politician, a social activist, a human rights defender and a cadre on the front line. She was also a champion of the advancement of gender equality and social justice," he said.
Cde Thuthani's death comes hard on the heels of the death of Deputy Director General Cde Menard Muzariri who was declared a national hero.
Cde Thuthani was born on July 31 1954 in Marondera. She attended Dombotombo Primary School before enrolling at St Killians for Form Two and did O-Level at Central African Correspondence College in 1974. In 1975 she left the country for the United Kingdom to do her A-Levels.
After that she read for a BA (Honours) degree in Public Administration at Sheffield City Polytechnic.
While abroad, she became conscious of the intensifying struggle and war of independence back home. She became active in student politics in the UK and worked closely with the late national heroes such as Cdes David Karimanzira, Witness Mangwende and Sabina Mugabe. The party also relied on her during the Lancaster House talks.
After independence she was attached to the Zanu-PF commissariat. She joined the Ministry of Manpower Planning and Development as an administrative officer. She was attested into the President's Department in
1983 as a desk officer under the external branch's evaluation division. In 1985, she was appointed political staff officer. From 2000 to 2002, she served as a counsellor at the Zimbabwean Em-bassy in Ethiopia and was later promoted to assistant director in the external branch before being elevated to deputy director, a rank she held until her death. Cde Thuthani served as a member of the National Joint Command for 11 years.
She is survived by two children. Burial arrangements will be annou-nced in due course.
Labels: CIO, OBITUARIES
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Zanu-PF politician, Patel, dies
Posted by By Our reporter at 12 September, at 22 : 18 PM
VETERAN politician and Zanu-PF Politburo member, Kantibhai Gordanbhai Patel (pictured), has died. He was 83.
A family spokesperson, Vijay Patel, son to the late said Patel died on Saturday morning at a Johannesburg hospital where he was being treated for hip and shoulder injuries sustained when he fell at his Ridgeview home last month.
He described the late Patel’s death as a loss not only to his family but to the entire nation.
Present at the funeral was Zanu-PF central committee member, Noah Mangondo, who said the late Patel will be remembered for his immeasurable contribution to Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe.
He said Patel will also be remembered for his dedication in mobilising funds and encouraging the Asian community to engage in the politics of the country’s liberation.
Patel‘s body is expected to be brought back to the country this on Tuesday.
Patel is survived by three sons and seven grandchildren.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF Harare province has recommended to the party that the late veteran politician and Politburo member Patel be accorded national hero status.
Province chairman, Ambassador Amos Midzi said the late Patel’s invaluable contribution to the party will be missed.
Ambassador Midzi said while recollecting Patel’s work on behalf of the party and the nation, the province has recommended to the party that the late veteran politician and businessman be honoured with national hero status.
Born on the 28th of October 1928 in Gujarat State in India, the late Patel was educated in India and came to Africa halfway through his university studies.
Heavily involved in mobilising financial support for the nationalist movement throughout the liberation struggle, Patel pioneered the Zanu-PF Ridgeview branch in 1980 where he encouraged members of the Asian community to play an active role in Zimbabwean politics while also serving in various capacities in the party and in government.
President Robert Mugabe, on Monday sent a condolence message to the Patel family.
In his message, the president said the late Patel was a veteran nationalist and astute politician who belonged to the rare breed of courageous non-African revolutionaries in Zimbabwe.
He said Patel’s contributions to the liberation struggle and his philanthropic work are well documented and shall remain etched in the annals of the history of Zimbabwe.
He said he recalls the late Patel’s heroic political activities in the National Democratic Party, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) and the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
On behalf of Zanu-PF, the government and the entire nation and on his own behalf, President Mugabe expressed his heartfelt condolences to the Patel family, particularly his children who have lost a strong pillar of support both spiritually and physically.
Labels: OBITUARIES, ZANU-PF
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Evans Ndebele 1959 – 2011
20/06/2011 00:00:00
by Rejoice Ngwenya I NewsDay
FORMER iconic Zimbabwe Express Airlines boss Evans Ndebele died on June 18. We were childhood friends, but I will hardly slide into an orgy of uncontrolled mourning. For me, it is a time to celebrate one of the true unsung heroes of uncontaminated Zimbabwean business acumen.
This is the man who proved how it is possible to create wealth out of sheer hard work and grit, without stealing from a white man in the name of “economic and social justice”.
It would be such a tragedy if those bestowed the honour of his graveside eulogy squandered captive moments on matters spiritual rather than memorable business exploits.
Unlike the legion of rogue present-day stalwarts of empowerment who glorify expropriation, Evans was a convert of innovation.
Even at the tender age of nineteen as Zapu refugees at “The Farm” in Botswana, he summoned enough courage to operate a butchery in a village outside Gaborone.
At college in Nairobi, it took him less than three months to secure a holiday job in Peter Colmore’s advertising agency where entertainment mogul Allan Riddell once settled.
Within a year of our academic safari in Kenya, Evans was managing a study centre with a local Kikuyu woman whom he fondly introduced to us as a “wealthy widow”!
Back in Zimbabwe in the mid-’80s when the rest of us were gloating over “good jobs” inherited from Rhodesians, Ndebele opted to establish a brokerage company that eventually blossomed into horticulture farming.
Endowed with a crude sense of humour, he would constantly chide me for lodging: “If the landlord sees you with a beautiful woman, he will also demand his own pound of flesh since he owns you too!”
By the time I was 25, he had convinced me to own a one-bedroom flat in Harare’s Avenues.
“There is money floating everywhere,” he would say.
“The challenge is how to funnel it into your account”.
Or the classic: “I want to be a millionaire before the age of thirty!” And this happened sooner than I thought. From one of his frequent trips to Nairobi, he told me that his old friend Colmore had introduced him to the managing director of Barclays Bank (UK) who personally knew Ian Khama, now President of Botswana.
Evans travelled to Gaborone and returned beaming with an idea to clean passenger aeroplanes and eventually own one!
After stringing together a complex rental agreement with a South African aviation company, it was not long before Zimbabwe Express Lines was traversing the regional skies.
One lesson I gleaned early from my now-departed friend was that there is no such thing as good luck in business.
The other is that once one assumes a particular entrepreneurial orbit, one becomes vulnerable to corruptive behaviour.
I discarded formal employment in the late ’80s because his advice was that local authority, railway and army tenders were the best way of entry into serious business.
We then “took on” the big political “guns” by tendering for firefighters and related equipment for the national army.
After several trips to Godiva and Carmichael in England to secure an agency, we waited patiently for the Government Tender Board to “announce” the winner. A colleague inside “the system” told us the tender had been awarded to a party loyalist.
This left me indebted to the bank which had permitted an overdraft for my frolic to Europe. It took almost 10 years of prostrate persuasion for the bank to get my name out of the Dunn and Bradstreet “black book” for bad debtors!
But like all “indigenous” businesspeople, it was difficult for Evans to resist the temptation of offering “everyone” a job. I personally attribute the collapse of his airline to spiralling overheads caused by the strenuous rentals paid in foreign currency to the South African company.
Other analysts accused him of rapid expansion, inept business decisions and a bloated human capital base with no value addition.
And yet when it came to innovation, there is nothing that this man set out to do that was not successful. Perhaps he did not take on board business partners who were capable, or he was just a victim of an oversized ego.
Owning and running an airline is fraught with explosives, if one has a weakness for beautiful women.
My friend found it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a stable marital institution. But whether or not that had a direct bearing on his business survival we will never know.
What I know is that here is a man who bought his own farm, ran his own airline and shunned patronage.
Evans was a true liberal capitalist who exalted profits and hated corruption. If ever there is going to be another African Richard Branson, my late friend, Evans Mantshontsho Ndebele, was already one!
Labels: OBITUARIES
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