The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
TWO books and memoirs of the late liberation icon and national hero, Dr Dumiso Dabengwa are being finalised and will provide an insight into the life of the man who dedicated most of his life to the liberation of the country.
Dr Dabengwa died on 23 May in Kenya while travelling back home from India where he was being treated for a liver ailment.
He was buried at his rural home, Manxeleni Village in Ntabazinduna, Umguza District, about 37km from Bulawayo on Saturday last week. In an interview, Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation director Mr Mthulisi Hanana said a number of people were interested in learning about the life of Dr Dabengwa.
“People are interested in the Dabengwa memoirs and I am glad to say work is being done towards that and as a foundation we will ensure that they are done and completed. Two books that he had started writing around his life are also going to be available to the public, they are not biographies as such but they are about issues surrounding his life. There are two people who have dedicated themselves to completing the books. We cannot disclose though now who is writing the books, maybe at a later stage,” he said.
Mr Hanana said the foundation will continue to celebrate the life of the late liberation war icon.
“When Dr Dabengwa passed on, people reacted in many ways, there have been obituaries; biographies, newspaper articles, Tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram and condolence books. We are compiling this into a book which will be launched on the 6th of December which could have been his 80th birthday,” he said.
The foundation also said there will be an annual Dumiso Dabengwa lecture which will start this year.
“There are key events around his life milestones so we will have events to remember him during those times,” he said.
Miss Sithembile Dabengwa, daughter to the late Dr Dabengwa, said they were happy that their father worked until his death as his calling was to serve the people.
“We are glad that we have people who are carrying forward the work that ubaba left behind. He never stopped serving the people even when he knew that it was now time to focus on spending time with us as a family. He kept pushing his work. There were projects that he wanted to see pulling through such as the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project so he tried his best to see that through together with other projects.”
The foundation is also pushing to have a road, suburb or library named after Dr Dabengwa.
