Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Online Reporter
NATIONALIST and liberation stalwart Cde Jane Ngwenya who was declared a national heroine will be buried on Friday instead of Saturday at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
Cde Ngwenya (86) died last Thursday night at Bulawayo’s Mater Dei Hospital.
Before her death, Cde Ngwenya had been listed as one of the people to be honoured as part of the Heroes Day commemorations.
She was then honoured posthumously with the second highest honour, the Grand Commander Zimbabwe Order of Merit Award.
Minister of State for Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs Abednico Ncube said the body will now leave for Harare on Thursday.
“Cde Ngwenya will now be buried on Friday instead of Saturday at the National Heroes Acre,” he said.
A church service will be held today at Doves Funeral Parlour in Bulawayo before the body is transported to Harare for burial tomorrow.
Cde Ngwenya, who served as Deputy Minister of Labour, Manpower Planning and Social Welfare in the early 80s was involved in the formation of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress in 1952, the National Democratic Party in 1960 and Zapu two years later.
Inspired by founding nationalists such as the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Benjamin Burombo, late VP Joseph Msika and Josiah Chinamano, she crossed into Zambia via Botswana to join the liberation struggle where on arrival she found Cdes George Silundika and Edward Ndlovu in charge of Zapu and became one of the leaders of the party.
Besides her role in liberating the country from colonial rule, Cde Ngwenya will also be remembered for sacrificing her marriage for nationalist politics.
As a young wife in colonial Rhodesia, Cde Ngwenya used to strap her daughter, Elizabeth, on her back to attend meetings that later culminated in the liberation of the country.
NaBigboy, as Cde Ngwenya was affectionately known, grew thirstier for the country to be liberated by each day she lived under the shackles of white minority rule.
She was actively involved in the politics of the time despite having young children to look after.
Her desire to see the country in the hands of black majority rule led to her arrest in the early 1950s and was imprisoned for three weeks at Grey Street Prison (now Bulawayo Prison) in what she described as appalling conditions together with her daughter, who was barely two years old at the time.
After the imprisonment, her husband George Tinarwo, tried to convince Cde Ngwenya to stop political activism and in the 1950s became impatient resulting in their divorce.
The seven-year marriage, which was consecrated at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, collapsed because she opted to liberate her country.
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