They agreed that the liberation stalwart will be buried at
his farm in Umguza district on the outskirts of Bulawayo.
Zanu PF Secretary of Administration Dr Obert Mpofu said
Government and the party will respect Cde Nkiwane’s wish to be buried at his
farm. Traditionally, national heroes are interred at the national shrine in
Harare.
Cde Nkiwane (93) succumbed to prostate cancer at the United
Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) on Tuesday where he was admitted. He was in the elite
Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) High Command.
Family spokesperson Pastor Fairchild Mhlophe said they are
yet to finalise on the burial date although indications were that he could be
buried tomorrow.
“We are yet to come up with the burial date, but the burial
site is his farm and as a family we agreed to honour his wish,” he said.
Cde Nkiwane was born on January 6, 1928 in Ntabazinduna in
Matabeleland North and attended the Presbyterian Church’s David Livingstone
Primary School before proceeding to Thekwane Mission after which he taught at
Tjehanga School from which he was expelled along with others for their demand
for justice in the manner the Methodist Church was running schools.
In 1949, he was employed by the Bulawayo Municipality
working in the African Department under the directorship of Dr Hugh Ashton.
In 1954 when Cde Nkiwane was reading towards a Bachelor of
Commerce degree, he left for Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) at the time of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which had been inaugurated in 1953.
Initially, he lived in Livingstone where he worked as stock
controller in a company known as Rhodesia Mercantile Holdings. He worked for
that company until 1960.
In 1961, Cde Nkiwane joined United National Independence
Party. Soon he began to work full time
for Zapu and subsequently moved to Lusaka.
Not so long after that Zapu leader Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo
visited Zambia specifically to solicit political support from Dr Kenneth
Kaunda.
Cde Nkiwane is survived by his wife, Ntombizodwa and three
children — two sons and a daughter. Herald
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