adminThe Zanu-PF leadership has since declared him a liberation hero.
A family spokesperson Mr Owen Dube yesterday said Prof Dube, who had been ill for some time died at Hillside Premier Hospital in Bulawayo on Tuesday.
“He died yesterday and had been ill for sometime. His death is a great loss to the family and the nation. He is a man who touched many lives,” said Mr Dube.
An educationist and a lawyer, Prof Dube attained his professorship in clinical psychology and was a lecturer in the United States of America for 36 years.
He joined the United Nations Security Council and served as senior legal and political affairs advisor for 19 years before retiring to his rural home in Bezha in Umzingwane District in 1998.
After his retirement Prof Dube would regularly go overseas to conduct public lectures to institutions all over the world and return to his rural homestead where he built a double storey house.
In 2000 he contested the parliamentary election as a Zanu-PF candidate for Umzingwane constituency after beating the then incumbent MP Cde Thenjiwe Lesabe and several other candidates in the party’s primaries.
Zanu-PF National Chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo said the party’s leadership had accorded Prof Dube liberation hero status.
“His Excellency President Mugabe has declared Prof Dube a liberation hero because of his enormous contribution during the liberation struggle and his unquestionable service after independence,” said Cde Khaya Moyo.
“He taught me at Fletcher High School in 1964. He was an honest teacher and a man of vision and always led from the front. He has produced a number of leaders outside the country in various forms of human endeavour.”
Cde Khaya Moyo said Prof Dube upheld the gains of the liberation struggle from his youthful days and when he was working outside the country.
“He has never looked back. He has never betrayed the ideals of the liberation struggle. He died a member of the National Consultative Assembly in the party. We will miss his wisdom and leadership qualities. May his soul rest in peace,” he said.
Prof Dube was popular for his passion for improved education standards especially for rural Matabeleland.
In an interview at his home in October last year, the renowned academic said his wish was to invest in the education of the girl child by establishing a school of mathematics and sciences in the village.
He said then he was planning to donate his “complex” comprising his towering double storey house located across the village plain together with a couple of guest houses and open rooms for use in teaching and as a library.
Prof Dube also had passion for the advancement of women whom he said had been denied access to education for a long time.
He was also instrumental in assisting scores of Zimbabwean youths to get scholarships to study in the USA.
Some of the notable figures he helped include Miss Patience Marime who is now a successful lawyer and Mr Edward Ncube who is now the director of one of the largest airports in Indiana, USA.
Among his pupils was Cde Khaya Moyo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, former Permanent Secretary of Education, Dr Isaiah Sibanda and the late Professor Masipula Sithole.
Before independence the clinical psychology professor used to practise law at Ben Barons and Partners before he was jailed in 1975 for supporting Zapu led by the late Vice President, Dr Joshua Nkomo.
After his release, Prof Dube went to Western Michigan University where he became clinical psychology professor and later joined the UN Security Council.
He was initially in the department of political affairs before he moved to security affairs in 1982, where he worked until he retired.
During his time in the UN, Prof Dube was the regional representative of UN, with the base located in Lusaka, covering Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa.
He also handled peace operations in Somalia and former Yugoslavia, the elimination of apartheid in South Africa and Namibia and the drafting of the UN code on the Law of the Sea.
In Somalia he became the civilian chief of staff and was in charge of about 30 000 people.
Prof Dube officially retired in June 1998 but continued to do some work for the UN as well as deliver public lectures in prominent places and to influential people across the USA and Namibia.
He has a house in New York and his two children; Tina and Ian still live there.
Mourners are gathered at his homestead in Bezha.
Mr Dube said the family was still deliberating on burial arrangements but indicated that it could be at the weekend.
Online Reporter