The Sunday News
FOLLOWING the death of veteran journalist Dumisani Sibanda last week who was buried on Friday at the Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo condolence messages have continued to pour in. Below our senior sub-editor Mduduzi Moyo and secretary-general of the Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme (RLRDP) of the Dr Obadiah Thembani Moyo give us snippets on the life of Sibanda, who worked for Sunday News, Chronicle, Southern Eye and Zimbabwe Mail. At the time of his death, he was a correspondent for Sunday News. He succumbed to a stroke:
Insight into Dumisani Sibanda’s nicknames — Mduduzi Moyo
Dumisani Sibanda (44) had an infectiously lovable character that endeared him to anyone in whose presence he came. This is evidenced by the numerous nicknames he picked throughout the journey of his colourful life. I remember barely three days into our life as boarders at Cyrene Secondary School, Dumisani obviously standing out because of his rotund frame and his light complexion had already earned a nickname Thabolo — after a very strict Mathematics teacher who had a bulky frame like him.
It was not to end there as later on in our life at Cyrene, Dumisani whom the diet of beans and isitshwala had failed to deflate soon got another nickname Piggy — after the fat bespectacled character that was always at the centre of crude jokes in William Golding’s novel Lord Of The Flies. This was a setbook for our O-level Literature in English.
In our high school days he was given the nickname Dr Azizi again a character from Edward Morgan’s novel Forsters A Passage to India which was our setbook for A-level. So infectious was the influence that Dumisani exuded to his peers that he had signature statements that although not necessarily his nicknames were largely synomous with him. In our English Literature study group in A-level which comprised myself, the late Freeman Zulu, the late Israel Ndebele and fellow journalist Swithern Chirowodza, Dumisani had coined an expression for studying. He would say to all of us “You need to suck the data” — a streetwise way to say that one needed to saturate themselves with facts before coming to the study group. This expression was to outlive our group as subsequent streams used it as well.
Dumisani Sibanda not an ordinary journalist — Dr Moyo
On behalf of myself and the RLRDP team, I wish to extend our condolences to Dumisani Sibanda’s family, colleagues and friends on his passing away. I have known Dumisani from the mid-90s, the time he joined Sunday News up to the time of his death; and to me he had become part of our team that advocated for libraries and information services in the rural communities of Zimbabwe.
Dumisani executed his work with love and great compassion and as such every article that he wrote focusing on rural libraries made a big impact. Dumisani liked the Vision and Mission of RLRDP, enjoyed being part of our teams visiting various rural communities to cover our field activities.
He became a close friend to all our staff, including the late Dr Lawton Hikwa. He always made follow-ups for updates on how rural libraries were doing . . . and few weeks ago, we accidentally met, and he took time to find out how RLRDP was doing.
He was a rare breed of a reporter, who took a personal interest in the living conditions of rural people and their need for relevant and appropriate information. We will forever remember his selfless dedication to the cause of rural libraries.
May His Dear Soul Rest in Eternal Peace.
