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Commando Barracks in Harare around 3 pm.
The body was later taken to his home in Ballantyne Park where a church service was conducted before President Mugabe addressed mourners.
In his speech, President Mugabe who is Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, described the death of Cde Mudenge as a great loss to the nation.
He said Cde Mudenge was an exceptional educationist who studied in various countries such as England and the United States of America before coming back to work for the Government at independence.
President Mugabe chronicled how Cde Mudenge did a thorough research on the Munhumutapa Empire and how one of Munhumutapa’s sons ended up being a missionary in India.
“VaMudenge ndakavaziva kareko vachiri kuchikoro. Taitaura nezvavo nanaVaMuzenda. Vakazodzidzisa kunyika dzakawanda. Kwese kwese kunana Sierra Leone, Swaziland nanaLesotho vaivaziva,” he said.
President Mugabe said at independence they relied on people such as Cde Mudenge to lead key Government positions.
He said Cde Mudenge started work in Government as secretary before he was deployed as Zimbabwe’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
He said Cde Mudenge was later recalled and reassigned as Foreign Affairs Minister.
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At the time of his death Cde Mudenge was the Minister of Tertiary and Higher Education.
“Takati paindependence ivo vanhu vakaita sachangamire vedzidzo ava, changamire wenhoroondo yenyika vaMudenge ndivo vataiti nyika zvayauya tovaisa mumaminisitiri kunyange vakange vasina ruzivo rwekuti hurumende inofambiswa sei. Asi takati neruzivo rwavainarwo havangazvikoniwi,” said President Mugabe.
He said Cde Mudenge was working hard to ensure that the country had a State university in every province.
President Mugabe urged students in tertiary institutions to preserve the country’s heritage and culture.
He said Zimbabwe had the highest “He diligently served the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he helped establish at independence in 1980.”
He said when the land reform programme was initiated, he was at the helm of the ministry where he ensured that Zimbabwe’s position on the land issue was clearly articulated.
In his condolence message, Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo said Cde Mudenge’s death came as a shock to patriotic and peace loving Zimbabweans.
“Dr Mudenge was a cadre of the revolution as evidenced by his incarceration at Gonakudzingwa in 1966 where he joined the late Cde Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and hundreds of other nationalists, whose only crime was to fight for the freedom of Zimbabwe,” he said. “Even after his release he remained consistent and persistent in the fight for the freedom of the motherland.”
“As a distinguished and committed intellectual, he died on duty,” said Cde Khaya Moyo adding, “In his demise the Mudenge family has been robbed of a shining star . . . Zimbabwe has lost an unflinching servant, Africa is without an intellectual of superlative repute and mankind is poorer by his absence.”
Harare Institute of Technology also extended their condolences to the Mudenge family.
“To HIT Dr Mudenge was an enigma, scholar of note, historian, diplomat, motivational speaker and astute politician rolled into one. He was the patron of our pioneer national outreach HIT Robotics Challenge tournament which he was to unveil in Masvingo next Saturday,” said HIT acting vice chancellor, Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe in a statement.
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