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Vusumuzi Dube, Online Reporter
THE teacher who was part of the group from Manama Mission who were recruited from school to join the liberation struggle in 1977, Cde Paulos Matjaka, has died.
Cde Matjaka died on Wednesday after suffering a stroke. He was 78. Cde Matjaka is the founding headmaster of JZ Moyo High School. He also was the head at Fatima, George Silundika and Wanezi high schools.
Cde Matjaka was part of the group of hundreds of school children and teachers that were taken from the Evangelic Lutheran Church of Zimbabwe-owned Manama Mission by three Zipra cadres into neighbouring Botswana before they flew to Zambia where they trained as freedom fighters. While in Botswana, those who did not want to join the liberation struggle were allowed to go back home.
Confirming Cde Matjaka’s death, his last born son, Holokile, said the Matjaka family and the entire Matabeleland South province had lost an educationist par excellence who always put education ahead of everything else.
“We are really saddened by the loss of our father, grandfather and great grandfather. He was a man who was very passionate about education, always encouraging people to further their education. As children he would tell us of his days in the liberation struggle where the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo elevated him to be in charge of the Zapu camps education department.
“Even after the country attained its independence, he continued furthering his love for the country’s education sector, becoming the founding headmaster of JZ Moyo High School and being the head at many schools in the region. It is, however, unfortunate that when war veterans were compensated for their contributions in the war he did not benefit despite him being one of the people who were vetting beneficiaries in the Matabeleland South province,” said Holokile.
He said the family was still consulting to set burial arrangements. He is survived by five children, 16 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His wife, Betty passed away in 1995 while his other daughter passed away in 1996.
In his last interview with Sunday News in August, Cde Matjaka- who by then had had one of his legs amputated because of cancer infection- reminisced the day when they were taken from school so vividly despite his old age and ill-health.
Cde Matjaka, who by the time of leaving the country was a 40-year-old teacher, noted that initially when freedom fighters besieged the school, he was not within the school premises but had to rush there to investigate.
“It all happened in the evening at around 6pm when the school children were about to go for their evening studies. I was not in the school premises but only rushed there when I heard the noise not knowing that I’m going straight into the jaws of a crocodile. It was quite an experience as we walked all the way to Botswana.
“From Botswana, we boarded planes to Zambia. When I got there I remember we spent some days without any activity but one day I was summoned by the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo who tasked me with forming a school in the camps noting that some of the children were too young to be trained as soldiers,” Cde Matjaka was quoted as saying.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter