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Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
BULAWAYO businessman and pioneering cross-border transport operator Mr Bednock Mbelda Sithole has died.
The veteran malayitsha passed away last Monday at Edenvale Hospital in South Africa.
“We are heartbroken to share the news that Bednock Mbelda ‘uJobe Udlala Kamnandi’ has passed away resulting from sugar level complications. He was 71 and died a day after being admitted to Edenvale Hospital in South Africa on the 17th of August and will be buried in Bulawayo on a date to be announced,” the Zimbabwe International Long-Distance Taxi Association (ZILDTA) said in a statement yesterday.
Chronicling his history, the ZILDTA said Sithole had exploited a gap in the market after the apartheid government banned rail travel between Zimbabwe and South Africa in 1986 in a bid to curtail acts of sabotage by the ANC and its allies.
“Mbelda and his colleagues Polite Ncube aka Lahlingubo, Sunrise Masiza and Leonard Nkomo to name but a few came together to form what is known today as Zimbabwe Long Distance Transport Association (ZILDTA) in Joburg in 1986 having travelled there because of the lure of the gold rush. Mbelda and his colleagues started transporting Zimbabwean immigrants particularly on holidays and specifically during the festive seasons from South Africa to Zimbabwe transiting through Botswana which was exempted from the train bans,” the statement read.
ZILTDA said Sithole, who was still a cross-border transporter, set a good example for young people, encouraging them to attain their dreams at all costs.
“While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable service to the people of Zimbabwe and the Sadc region.”
Online Reporter