The Sunday News
Sunday News Reporter
Former Bulawayo Town Clerk Dr Michael Mkanyiso Ndubiwa has died. Dr Ndubiwa died yesterday afternoon at Mater Dei Hospital where he had gone for his routine dialysis session, his son, Horace, confirmed.
Dr Ndubiwa had been in and out of hospital since early last year because of a kidney ailment. Dr Ndubiwa became deputy town clerk of Bulawayo in 1979, and by 1984 was the first black town clerk in independent Zimbabwe when the last white town clerk Ian Edmeades left, serving until 1999 when he retired.
Dr Ndubiwa completed a BA degree in 1964 from the University of Lesotho. He obtained an Masters Degree in Public Administration in 1972 from Birmingham (partly funded by a city council scholarship), and was the first black person in Southern Africa to receive a diploma from the Southern Africa Institute of Town Clerks in 1978.
He became the first black Area Controller in the liquor undertaking, and then worked his way up to become Assistant Superintendent, Superintendent, Administration Officer, and Senior Administration Officer in the 1970s and became Deputy Town Clerk of Bulawayo in 1979, and in 1984 he became the first black Town Clerk in independent Zimbabwe, serving until 1999, when he retired after nearly 40 years of service to the Council.
A family man and businessman, Dr Ndubiwa was also a staunch member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church where he held a number of leadership positions.
