Apology

In last week’s instalment of “The Chronicles of the Second Chimurenga”, which was titled “We turned back after stumbling on dead bodies”, we erroneously attributed the narration and story of Cde Stanford Peace Moyo to Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube.

We would like to unreservedly apologise to Col (Rtd) Tshinga Dube, his family and our readers. The error and inconvenience caused are sincerely regretted.

Corrective measures have since been taken to ensure this does not happen again.

Col (Rtd) Dube was born on July 3, 1941, at Fort Usher in Matobo district, Matabeleland South.

The war veteran, whose nom de guerre was Cde Embassy, was deployed in the Tsholotsho area in Matabeleland North in a unit that included the famous David Mongwa Moyo (Sharpshoot) and John Ntemba.

The unit laid the groundwork for the joint ZIPRA (when it was still called the Department of Special Affairs) and Umkhonto weSizwe Wankie Battle of 1967.

It also carried out massive recruitment and politicisation of the masses.

During the ceasefire in December 1979, Col (Rtd) Dube was involved in supervising guerrillas from ZIPRA and ZANLA who were going into assembly points.

After integration, he served as head of the Signal Corps within the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

He then undertook research and development in the Ministry of Defence and acquired immense knowledge in the military, particularly regarding weapons and ammunition. This saw him being appointed general manager of the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), which was involved in the acquisition and sale of arms, ammunition and related military hardware.

Paul Kagame, then leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, and now President of Rwanda; DRC President Laurent Kabila and the Sri Lanka government fighting Tamil Tiger rebels were some of those who received arms from ZDI.

Col (Rtd) Dube holds an MSc degree in Electrotech from MADI Institute of Engineering in Moscow, Russia.

An expert in military communications, Col (Rtd) Dube also holds a Higher Diploma in Chemical Weapons Convention from The Hague, and chaired the Zimbabwe National Authority on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for 15 years.

He once served on the United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament.

Apart from serving as head of ZDI for 22 years, he also sat on many boards of State-owned enterprises.

For example, he was a Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation board member for eight years and deputy board chairperson of TelOne for seven years.

In 2012, he was the chairperson of Marange Resources.

Col (Rtd) Dube was elected the Member of Parliament for Makokoba in June 2015.

In September 2015, he was sworn in as Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators and Former Political Detainees.

He is also a long-time benefactor of Highlanders Football Club.