The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Honourable Monica Mutsvangwa has said the passing on of veteran journalist, historian and liberation fighter, Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a great loss to the journalism fraternity.
Ndlovu (87) passed away on Friday morning at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) after succumbing to a heart ailment. Below is the statement from the Information Minister.
“For the second time this week the media fraternity has been plunged into mourning, this time for Cde Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu, a seasoned journalist and who has a long history of participating in the liberation struggle of our country.
Cde Ndlovu succumbed to a heart ailment at United Bulawayo Hospital this (Friday) morning. He is remembered by colleagues in the media fraternity as having been a gregarious gentleman and one who always was there for young journalists during his tenure at Zimpapers and Munn Publications.
Earlier this week, the media family was plunged into mourning when it lost Ms Sandra Nyaira in Harare.
Cde Gwakuba was born on 23 September 1934 at Dombodema Mission in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South Province. After his secondary education at Kutama Mission he worked as a teacher between 1954 and 1959 while being a correspondent for the African Newspapers. He was also a research worker in Social Anthropology among the Kalanga people in the Mangwe District.
He then went into full-time journalism in 1961 in the then Salisbury. Later on he left the country for Zambia to join at the armed struggle where he became founding editor and director of the publicity and information for Zapu between 1964 and 1978.
In 1972 he was part of cadres that were sent to the then Soviet Union by Zapu for training. Among his group were now Brigadier-General (Retired) Abel Mazinyane, Colonel (Retired) Thomas “Menu” Ngwenya, late Cde Jack Amos Ngwenya, Phebione Makonese, Easter Ndiweni and Josiah Ncube. Cdes Gwakuba Ndlovu, Ngwenya, Ndiweni and Makonese were to do leadership training in the Soviet Union.
He also served as the diplomatic representative for Zapu based in Algeria responsible for Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Saharawi. He also covered countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany.
On behalf of Zapu he participated in a number of the then Organisation of African Unit summits, Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation meetings, United Nations, ant-colonialism committee conferences, Heads of State and several international journalism conferences at places such as in Prague, Pyongyang, Moscow, Berlin, Cairo, Kinshasa, Rome and New Delhi.
From mid-June to mid-July 1979, Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu and Dr Barnabas Dzingai Mutumbuka undertook a lecture tour in Canada on behalf of the Patriotic Front (PF) to acquaint to the Canadian with current socio-political situations in then Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and why the PF was strongly opposed to that treacherous Muzorewa-Smith regime.
Following Zimbabwe’s attainment of independence, Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu joined Chronicle newspaper in Bulawayo as a senior editorial staff member. He was later appointed Features and Supplements editor for both Chronicle and Sunday News. He left Chronicle and Sunday News in 1984 to join the Munn Publishing Company where he was the contributing editor and regional manager responsible for Matabeleland, the Midlands, Masvingo, Botswana and Zambia.
He left Munn Publishing Company in September 1987 after he was offered a post by Lonrho Zimbabwe as a Public Relations Executive with responsibility over the same region as that he covered with Munn Publishing. Lonrho Zimbabwe later set him to Swaziland, in January 1988, where his responsibility as a consultant at that country’s official newspaper, The Swazi Observer was to revive that publication by training.
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu later joined Speciss College as a part time lecturer in public relations, marketing and sales and sales management, travel and tourism, customer care and service and journalism.
He stopped after about four years to concentrate on his commercial gardening project. He ran a weekly column in the Chronicle on topics of public interest and value. He has authored three publications: The voice of Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwe: Some Facts about Its Liberation Struggle and Zimbabwe In The Struggle.
He passed on at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) on 16 July 2021 after succumbing to a heart ailment. He is survived by his wife, Caroline Gwakuba Ndlovu, five children and eight grandchildren. Mourners are gathered at number 16 Jungle Road, Trenance, Bulawayo.”
