The Sunday News
Loveness Mpofu, Sunday News
ACADEMICS and former students of the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) yesterday held an inaugural memorial lecture for the institution’s late Vice-Chancellor Professor Lindela Rowland Ndlovu to honour his legacy.
Present at the lecture which was held at a Bulawayo hotel were Nust founding Vice-Chancellor Professor Phineas Makhurane, academics Professor Mandivamba Rukuni, Dr Lewis Hove and poet and musician Albert Nyathi as well as former students and colleagues who included Mr Thabani Maphosa and Dr Davison Moyo.
“We want this memorial lecture to be an annual event so that we continue with Professor Ndlovu’s legacy,” said Dr Hove who was a student of Prof Ndlovu at the University of Zimbabwe.
Dr Hove said Prof Ndlovu was a humble, intelligent and hard-working man. He said he supervised hundreds of under-graduates, scores of masters and PhD students and published more than 70 journals and 30 book chapters.
“I knew Prof Ndlovu as an academic and also as a great mentor. I remember there was a time when Gregory Isaacs was performing in the country and I knew that I was going to miss the performance as I had to carry out samples the whole night. Surprisingly, Prof Ndlovu knew that I loved reggae so much, so he told me to go to the performance and did all the samples for me the whole night,” said Dr Hove.
Prof Makhurane said it was sad that the country lost Prof Ndlovu.
“It’s sad that he was supposed to be the one speaking for me today and not the other way round; but we will accept this fate because it is God’s doing,” he said.
Prof Ndlovu died in November 2015. He was a holder of a PhD in animal nutrition with his area of study bordering on Nutritional Biochemistry that he obtained from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He had also worked as a Dean of Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe. He also made the draught power to be prominent in Zimbabwe which helped a lot in the farming sector as technology was limited back then. Prof Ndlovu also sat on a number of boards. He is survived by his wife, Ms Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, and three children; Lindelwe Ndlovu (24), Lindumuzi Ndlovu (21) and Likwa Sifiso Ndlovu (19).
