The Sunday News
Saul Ndluvu
ONE of Zimbabwe’s prominent former freedom fighters, Kotsho Lloyd Malindi Bhango Dube, who passed away on 1 December 2014, was declared a national hero and will be laid to rest among his peers at the prestigious shrine in Harare today.He breathed his last in the arms of his loving wife, Agatha (nee Bukutu), at their house in Bulawayo’s Khumalo suburb shortly after going to bed on Monday night. He was 79 years old.
Born in Malindi Village in the Matobo District, KD (as we used to call him) was one of numerous descendants of a historic chief Bhango reputed to have had more children than the reeds of the Semokwe River: (Bana baBhango banji kupinda hanga dzaSemokwe).
KD did his primary schooling first at Zamanyoni where his clan-brother, Rev Willie Keti Bhango Dube, of the then London Missionary Society (LMS) was based, and was the superintendent of all LMS schools in the Tjimali Circuit.
The London Missionary Society (LMS) is now called the United Congregation Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA).
From Zamanyoni, KD went to Mzingwane where he did Standard Six. Among his teachers were professional luminaries such as the late Timothy Kumile Masola, Stanlake Samkange and Daniel Hilton Makhulela Dube (Angeline Kamba’s father).
From Mzingwane, KD went to Kutama Secondary School, also known as Marist Brothers College. The principal of that Roman Catholic institution was at that time Brother Ernest, a no-nonsense academic task-giver whose Latin-lessons were as unforgettable as they were comical.
At Kutama, KD met a number of boys some of whom later played an important part in the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe. They included Dumiso Dabengwa, Oscar Mashengele, Herbert Martin Dick (HMD) Munangatire, and Edward Nyongolo Nkomo.
After completing University Junior Certificate (UJC) at Kutama, KD went to Tegwane High School to do matric whose examinations were overseen by the Joint Matriculation Board (JMB). Both the UJC and the JMB were South African-based secondary education qualifications.
At Tegwane (now Tekwane) KD met highly politically minded students some of whom weres Eddison Zvobgo and Isaac Nyathi. Meanwhile, Dumiso Dabengwa had also left Kutama for Tegwane. The principal of that Methodist (Wesleyan) institution was Rev W A Hawskins who had succeeded the Rev G E Hay-Pluke.
After matriculating, KD went to work as an articulated clerk with Coghlan, Welsh and Guest, a legal firm in Salisbury. He later left that firm to join the Southern Rhodesia Reserve Bank.
The modern stage of African nationalist political campaigns was taking form, and he participated, first in the revitalised Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) as a passive member.
SRANC membership was not new to the Malindi family as one of his older brothers; Tundu (uyise kaLevi) was a card-carrying member and was working quite closely with the SRANC president, Joshua Nkomo.
After the SRANC was outlawed on 26 February 1959, KD joined its successor, the National Democratic Party (NDP). He participated in its recruitment activities as well as anti-government demonstrations in the city’s high-density suburbs, particularly Highfield where he was renting a house owned by Tenda George Nduna Moyo, a social welfare officer.
One such occasion in which KD took part was a massive demonstration in 1960 the aim of which was to force Sir Edgar Whitehead’s administration to release James Robert Dambaza Chikerema, George “Bonzo” Nyandoro, Eddison Sithole, Daniel Madzimbamuto, Maurice Nyagumbo and Henry Hamadziripi from detention.
They were held in the remote Mapfungabusi Forest area of Gokwe from the time the SRANC was banned up to December 1962.
The demonstration’s aim was for the large body of people to get to the Prime Minister’s offices and present a demand for the immediate release of those detainees.
The demonstrators were, however, turned back by a contingent of heavily armed police with a large pack of grouling Alsatian dogs at the Old Bricks Methodist Church.
KD was one of the people who were in the front line of that large number of people, so was the author of this orbituary.
When the NDP was proscribed, Zapu was formed and KD was a prominent member of that organisation whose youth was collectively called “izhanda”.
The duties of “izhanda” were to recruit membership, to organise people for anti-government activities, and to attack members of rival political organisations the most hated of which was at that time Sir Edgar Whitehead’s United Federal Party (UFP).
Members of the “zhanda” would move from area to area at night stoning houses of UFP members and those of police reservists. KD would not be found wanting in this regard especially in those parts of Highfield where he could not be easily recognised.
KD was a committed freedom fighter and that was why he abandoned a well paying job in Salisbury (Harare) to join a highly risky undertaking whose outcome was uncertain at worst, and very remote at best.
An incident occurred in 1964 at his Highfield house which indicated his commitment to the national cause. A trained guerrilla, Joshua Ndebele, was dispatched from Bulawayo by Dumiso Dabengwa, Akim Ndlovu and Luke Nene Mhlanga to go and blow up the Salisbury Main Post Office.
Ndebele was given a powerful bomb that he was expected to time and place in the building. He had the required post office uniform. He would assemble the bomb in KD’s house which was in the New Canaan section of Highfield, in the same street as Robert Mugabe’s house at that time.
Ndebele arrived by train in the morning and found KD just about to leave for work. He was left in the house where he later tried to time the bomb in readiness to take it to the post office. Unfortunately, it went off prematurely, killing him instantly.
When Zapu was banned in September 1962, the leadership decided to go the whole hog for an armed revolution. That meant having not only offices at strategic places throughout the world, but also reliable party cadres to represent the party at those offices.
At that time (1962), Zapu had offices in Cairo (Egypt), London (Britain) in Dar er Salaam (Tanzania) and a less publicly known one in the headquarters of the United National Independence Party (Unip) in Lusaka in the then Northern Rhodesia, later to become Zambia.
KD was later to be the Zapu diplomatic representative at the United Nations (New York) and then later in London to replace Nelson Samkange who had succeeded Nicholas Chitsiga before whom the office had been manned by senior party officials such as J Z Moyo, George Nyandoro or Edward Silonda Ndlovu.
During the NDP days, the London office was manned by Leopold Takawira who took over from Enock Dumbutshena who, together with Joshua Nkomo, established it in 1959 at the time of the SRANC.
When the Zapu leadership in Zambia experienced an internal crisis in 1972, KD left the office and went to study in America where he acquired a philosophy doctorate and taught there until 1978 when he rejoined Zapu in Lusaka, Zambia, that time as the director of the publicity and information department.
A man of few words, soft spoken, KD died as he had lived, quietly in the peace and dignity of his house. He is now in the blissful world of shadows, in the company not only of other national heroes of Zimbabwe, but that of the legendary Chief Bhango’s innumerable children. Uhambe kahle nkumbudzi webanhu nemhuka dzose!
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a Bulawayo-based retired journalist and former freedom fighter. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136 or through email [email protected]
