Adieu top-notch airman Muchenje

Gerald Maguranyanga
TRAGIC senior Air Force of Zimbabwe officer, Wing Commander Tongayi Muchenje, affectionately called “Uncle Much” by some, who died a few days ago, in a dreadful early-morning car smash and has been buried, was a top-notch airman. Declared a provincial war hero, among many other honours, he was the recipient of the Long Service and Exemplary Service medals.

Muchenje passed on when the car he was driving struck a tree along Airport Road (re-christened Joshua Nkomo Road), in Harare. He died on the spot, aged only 44. His passing has hit hard the small, well-knit aviation community in Zimbabwe, as most of the few pilots are interconnected to each other, at least as acquaintances of an acquaintance. A few months ago, the local aviation cluster was mourning Air Zimbabwe’s Captain Danai Taruvinga, who was the flight operations manager, who also perished in an inopportune car calamity. Now this!

I had personally known the modest Muchenje for quite a number of years. I was first introduced to him by my first-ever flying training instructor, Ronald Ngadze.

Ngadze is a former AFZ military flier through whom I got connected to a number of serving and former military airmen, many of whom are much-admired and respected aviators. The honour list would include the trendsetting and bubbly Captain Chipo Matimba, Captain Otis Shonai and another former military flier, Enzanai Moyo, all now at Air Zimbabwe. Moyo would also become my Ground School instructor.

At the time of his mistimed end, Wing Commander Muchenje was a military officer stationed at Zimbabwe Defence Forces Headquarters. Over the years, he attended several seminars and sat for and passed with flying colours exams and mandatory CEC subjects pertaining to his status as a flying military man.

He was a decorated Flight Instructor and was licensed to fly several types of aircraft; the Agusta Bell 412 Griffon, the Aerospatiale AS352 Cougar, the Alouette III helicopters etc.

He was also an instructor at the AFZ Basic Flight Training Squadron in Gweru, where he flew the Siai Marchetti SF-260 aircraft.
My high esteem for Airman Muchenje, based at Manyame Air Base for many years, was borne out of the fact that he had been Ngadze’s first-ever flying instructor! Why, I am lucky to even possess several photos of myself and Muchenje in my album, taken over subsequent years. In my eyes, though he always deflected my high praise, Muchenje was not an ordinary airman to impressionable me, as I knew that he also flew VVIP sorties, something I dreamed of doing as a young man. Though not many years separated each one of us, Muchenje, Ngadze and myself represented three distinct generations of aviators, each with his own unique stories to tell, and in jest, I liked to outrageously claim that Muchenje was my indirect instructor as he was the one who had trained my instructor.

The late Muchenje attended primary school at Chipindura in Bindura and did his O-levels at Makumbi Secondary School and A-levels at Gokomere Secondary School in Masvingo, where he excelled in academics.

He trained locally at the AFZ as a pilot from 1989, becoming a fully-fledged pilot by 1990, 10 years into post-independent Zimbabwe; a rare achievement for aspiring black people then.

He was to subsequently rise through the ranks to become a captain on the Cougar helicopter where he also enjoyed the distinct privilege of flying the State President.

AFZ Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri remarked: “It was indeed shocking and quite disheartening to learn that such a hardworking, loyal and experienced officer could be taken away from our midst when his services were still critically required in the AFZ and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces as a whole.”

We shared a passion for the rough-and-tumble of rugby.
He has been laid to rest with full military honours and is survived by his grief-stricken mother, Gogo Muchenje and a daughter, Thandi.
It probably is true then that an airman is safer in the air than on the ground!

Fly high Zimbabwean warrior!

Gerald Maguranyanga is a trained pilot and an aviation enthusiast.