Tributes paid to ‘humble, principled’ ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa

ZimLive.com

BY TONY KAROMBO

23rd May 2019

Tributes poured in for liberation icon Dumiso Dabengwa, following his death in Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he had “huge respect for Dumiso and his contribution to Zimbabwe as a liberation fighter, a long-standing Minister of Home Affairs and as a man.”

MDC leader Nelson Chamisa paid tribute to a “a humble, wise, honest and principled leader.”

“A hero of our liberation struggle without peer, he lived a simple life. We don’t take it lightly that he endorsed our cause before he left us. We join the Dabengwa family, and nation during this sad moment,” Chamisa said on Twitter.

The Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation said Zimbabwe had “lost a man of the people, and a mentor”, describing the former Home Affairs Minister as a “son of the soil who sacrificed his entire life for the independence of this great nation of Zimbabwe.”

Lawyer David Coltart said: “Although we were on different sides in the war and on different sides when I first stood for Parliament, we became good friends and he will be greatly missed. My deepest sympathy is extended to Zodwa and their family.”

Tributes also came from the United States embassy, the Dutch embassy and the European Union mission to Zimbabwe.

Chief Nhlanhla Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna, Dabengwa’s birthplace, tweeted: “Words will not suffice to express the heartfelt sorrow for the passing of my Dumiso Dabengwa. The nation has been robbed of a gallant son. He will forever be Ntabazindunas greatest export. Phumula qhawe!”

Dabengwa, jailed by the regime on treason charges during army massacres that rights groups say killed thousands in Matabeleland in the 1980s, died aged 79 as he returned from India where he was receiving treatment for liver disease.

Dabengwa was head of intelligence for the armed wing of the ZAPU liberation movement, which was led by the late Joshua Nkomo in a struggle against white minority rule in the then Rhodesia.

Nicknamed the “Black Russian” because of his military training in Russia, Dabengwa was accused of hiding arms of war, the pretext for the army crackdown in western Zimbabwe that rights groups say killed 20,000 mostly minority Ndebele.

In 1983, Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku, the commander of ZIPRA, were charged with treason by the government of then President Robert Mugabe. They were acquitted by the courts but remained in detention until their release in 1986.

Masuku, whose health deteriorated in detention, was released to a hospital ward where he died. Joshua Nkomo later said Masuku’s last wish to see Dabengwa had been rejected by the regime.

Dabengwa would in later years say that ZAPU’s armed wing included members from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), which was fighting the apartheid government and that some of the cached arms belonged to ANC’s military wing.

The 1982 to 1987 massacres have continued to haunt President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was Mugabe’s security minister during the period. Mnangagwa last month said Zimbabweans should openly talk about the massacres, known as “Gukurahundi”, as part of a national healing process.

Dabengwa became a government minister for eight years up to 2000 after ZAPU merged with the ruling Zanu PF. After leaving government, Dabengwa became critical of Mugabe and Zanu PF policies before leaving the party to revive ZAPU in 2008.

In the run-up to the July 2018 presidential and parliamentary vote, Dabengwa supported opposition leader Nelson Chamisa for the presidency.