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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
NATIONALIST and liberation stalwart Cde Jane Ngwenya, who was declared a national heroine, will be buried on Saturday at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
Cde Ngwenya (86) died last Thursday night at Bulawayo’s Mater Dei Hospital. Cde Ngwenya was on Monday honoured with the second highest honour, the Grand Commander Zimbabwe Order of Merit Award, as part of the Heroes Day commemorations.
Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs Minister Abednico said the body will leave for Harare on Friday.
He said finer details will be availed today.
“Cde Ngwenya will be buried on Saturday at the National Heroes Acre. The body will leave on Friday but finer details will be availed tomorrow,” he said.
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, Joseph Msika and Josiah Chinamano, she crossed into Zambia via Botswana to join the liberation struggle whereupon her arrival she found Cdes Moyo, 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 the fact that she had young children to look after.
Her thirst to see the country in the hands of black majority rule led to her arrest in the early 1950s.
She was imprisoned for three weeks at Grey Street Prison (now Bulawayo Prison) in what she described as appalling living 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 had a choice to make, her marriage or her country.
Known as a “rabble-rouser” and a “no-nonsense” woman because of her strong political convictions during her time, Cde Ngwenya was one of the few women to be involved in nationalist politics at the top level during the struggle.
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