Chronicle Editor
Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT is today set to meet the family of the late national heroine Cde Jane Lungile Ngwenya over the liberation stalwart’s burial arrangements.
Cde Ngwenya (86) died on Thursday at Bulawayo’s Mater Dei Hospital, three days before she could be conferred with the Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit (GZM) yesterday for her outstanding contribution to the national cause.
GZM is the second highest honour Zimbabwe reserves for its most distinguished sons and daughters.
Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe yesterday told Chronicle that they will send a delegation to Cde Ngwenya’s
family’s homestead in Umzingwane on the outskirts of Bulawayo to discuss the burial arrangements
“We are sending a delegation tomorrow (today) to meet the family of the late national heroine on burial arrangements. We will only be able to announce the burial date including the burial site after the meeting,” he said.
President Mnangagwa described Cde Ngwenya as a dedicated cadre, leader and stalwart of the liberation movement and struggle. He said Cde Ngwenya stood out as a firebrand female cadre who lent militancy to the nationalist movement in its early phase.
Former Zimbabwe Revolutionary People’s Army (ZPRA) Chief of Military Intelligence Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane (Retired) said Cde Ngwenya was a selfless, brave and humble cadre who sacrificed her life towards liberating the country.
“Her contribution in the liberation struggle is unparalleled and she really deserved the national hero status. She was a selfless person who was humble and dedicated to serving people and indeed she died a humble person,” he said.
“She is an icon and we ought to emulate such people who were willing to sacrifice their lives.”
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mazinyane said he first met Cde Ngwenya in 1973 in Tanzania when she, together with Cde Jason Ziyapapa Moyo (JZ) had come to address the cadres at their camp.
“When Cde Ngwenya visited us in 1973 it was my first time to see a woman wearing a military regalia because when I left Rhodesia in 1969 there were no female freedom fighters. She was a brave woman who inspired other women to join the liberation struggle,” he said.
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mazinyane said the late nationalist was the first woman to become a member of National Democratic Party (NDP) national executive when politics was still regarded as a male domain.
“Cde Ngwenya played a critical role in PF-Zapu as she was also part of the delegation that travelled to several countries to solicit for assistance from friendly countries during the liberation struggle. When Cde JZ died in 1977 after letter bomb exploded on his hands, Cde Ngwenya was also there and she got injured,” he said.
“I was part of a commission which was set up to probe the circumstances that led to the bomb attack and Cde Ngwenya is one of the people we interviewed together with Cde Gibson Mayisa.”
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mazinyane said Cde Ngwenya was emotional and visibly traumatised as they interviewed her.
“She broke into tears and we had to wait for her to recover from the trauma. Her death has really affected me and I am heartbroken,” he said.
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.
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.
She credited her political career to strong inspiration from founding nationalists such as the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Benjamin Burombo, Joseph Msika and Josiah Chinamano, and the late former President, Robert Mugabe.
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 NDP in 1960 and Zapu two years later.
She was born in Buhera, Manicaland in 1935. She attended Gwebu Primary School in the same area. She was the first-born child of Gerald Ngwenya, a Sotho from South Africa, who had come to Rhodesia as a Methodist Church missionary.
Cde Ngwenya was raised by her maternal parents as her mother remarried after her father had died in 1938.
She is survived by a son Shingirayi, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Mourners are gathered at her farm in Esigodini. — @mashnets
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