Nkala a Hero, Says Zimbabwe President Mugabe

Zimbabwe revolutionary war veteran and government official, Enos Nkala, 81, has joined the ancestors. He transitioned after the ZANU-PF landslide victory on July 31., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Nkala a hero, says President

August 22, 2013
Herald Reporters

PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday mourned veteran nationalist Cde Enos Nkala, who passed on in Harare, describing him as a great, staunch, unyielding and dependable liberation war fighter whose death is a great loss to the nation.Cde Nkala — a founding Zanu nationalist, longtime close friend of President Mugabe and former Cabinet minister — died at a private hospital in

Harare yesterday morning from a complicated ailment that saw his heart and kidneys failing.
He was 81.

Family spokesperson, Mr Herbert Nkala, said his uncle had been admitted to the clinic for the past 10 days.

The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces told journalists at State House last night that he visited Cde Nkala in hospital on Tuesday night and little did he know that he was bidding him farewell.

‘“I said ‘Enos, Enos, ndauya’ and he opened his eyes and seemed to acknowledge my presence. I inquired from the doctor and he said his condition was very complicated.

“His heart was weak and no longer pumping blood in the normal way. There was a collapse of both the heart and the kidneys. I did not know that my visit to him will be a kind of farewell,” President Mugabe said.

“He is a great fighter for our liberation. Very, very staunch fighter, unyielding, dependable, and a good fighter. Well, perhaps at his age, born in the 1930s, his body was bound to give in.

“I want to say to his family, his wife and children that I am very, very, sorry at their loss which is our loss together. The work that their husband and father has done was not in vain.”

President Mugabe narrated the key roles played by Cde Nkala in the formation of the National Democratic Party and later Zanu, political organisations that executed the liberation struggle.

“We will be discussing what to do with him. I am sure he will be buried at the National Heroes Acre. If a person like him is not buried there, then no one else qualifies.

“We want to see him well buried, well honoured. It is a very sad loss. I will miss him as a great friend. It is a very sad loss to all of us in Zanu-PF. We were shocked by his death,” President Mugabe said.

Vice President Joice Mujuru described Cde Nkala, Zimbabwe’s first finance minister, as a liberation icon who inspired many young people to join the liberation struggle.

“He is one of the nationalists that also contributed to my being during the struggle, an icon of the revolution,” she said.

Cde Nkala, a former home affairs and defence minister, was transferred from Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo to a private hospital in Harare after his condition worsened.

His liberation war credentials date back to the 1960s when the struggle for independence was in its infancy.

Mr Herbert Nkala described the late nationalist as an outstanding person who left behind a great legacy.

“He was quite an outstanding person who went through a lot in his life, during the liberation struggle up to his time in government as a Cabinet minister,” Mr Nkala said.

In a statement yesterday, Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo said the revolutionary party was in shock at the demise of the veteran nationalist.

“The party is shocked and saddened by the tragic death of one of the illustrious sons of Zimbabwe, Cde Enos Nkala, this morning (yesterday) at the Avenues Clinic, Harare.

“Cde Nkala was a veteran gallant fighter of the nationalist struggle. He represents that rare breed of nationalist cadres who defied the diabolic racist laws of the Rhodesian settler regime and was always harassed, detained and arrested for his defiant attitude and actions.

“Cde Nkala will always be remembered for being one of the architects of the formation of Zanu in 1963 (which later became Zanu-PF in 1987 after the Unity Accord). Zanu was formed in his house on 8 August 1963 in Highfield.

“Cde Nkala served in Government and held several posts in the 1980s. Burial arrangements will be announced in due course.”

As news of the veteran nationalist’s demise started filtering through, condolence messages poured in with his colleagues describing him as a fearless cadre.

Zanu-PF Bulawayo provincial chairman Professor Callistus Ndlovu said: “He is a founder member of Zanu. In fact, the party was founded at his house. He was a fearless fighter and his contemporaries know that he confronted the enemy without fear.

“At times he used strong language which antagonised him with some people. However, he never kept a grudge and whenever you quarrelled with him it would end there.”

Prof Ndlovu said Cde Nkala was a generous person who assisted a lot of people from Bulawayo to go to school and helped others to get jobs in Harare.

“I would say notwithstanding the negatives about him, Nkala was generally interested in the positive future of his own people. That is why he was concerned about the self-exclusion of his Ndebele people.

“He feared that this might create a generation of marginalised people. He wanted them to be involved,” said Prof Ndlovu.

Zanu-PF Politburo member and outgoing Matabeleland South Governor Cde Angeline Masuku said Cde Nkala was one of the people who steered the liberation struggle.

Zapu leader Dr Dumiso Dabengwa said he worked with Cde Nkala during the days of the NDP in 1960 and got used to him more at Grey Street Prison, now Bulawayo Prison, where they shared the same cell.

“I found him already there in 1961 during the days of zhi and we were made to stay together in a cell for almost four months. While in the cell we discussed the state of the liberation struggle and ideas that we were going to implement after release,” said Dr Dabengwa.

He said Cde Nkala was part of the team that formed Zapu in 1962 before the party was banned.

“In 1963 Cde Nkala and (President) Mugabe formed Zanu and I lost touch with him at that time until I met him again during the negotiations at the Lancaster House Conference,” said Dr Dabengwa.

“He was a critical person who spoke his mind out whether you liked it or not.”

Cde Nkala was born in Insiza District in Matabeleland South Province where he grew up and did his education at local schools.

He worked for an insurance company in Harare where his involvement in politics began. He did not receive much of formal education, but while in prison, he studied accounting.

Cde Nkala was one of the founders of Zanu as the party was formed at his house, 4449 Highfield, Harare in 1963.

He was the party’s first treasurer and held the post until his resignation from politics.

During the war, he served in the party’s high command.

He was detained at Gonakudzingwa for 12 years with leaders such as Ndabaningi Sithole, Leopold Takawira, Edgar Tekere, Maurice Nyagumbo, all late, and President Mugabe.

At independence in 1980 Cde Nkala became the Minister of Finance until 1983 when he was moved to the Ministry of National Supplies.

In 1985, he became Minister of Home Affairs, and then moved over to Defence after the 1985 elections.

Cde Nkala resigned from Government in 1989 at the height of the Willowgate scandal, which involved the acquisition of several vehicles from Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries by individuals in Government.

The vehicles were then sold at exorbitant prices in a market that was starved of new vehicles. Last year, Cde Nkala said he was bitter about the way he was forced to leave politics in 1989, insisting that he chose to resign rather appear before the Wilson Sandura Commission because he was not wrong.

Since then, he was not active in politics until his death. Mourners are gathered at House Number 62 Carrick Road, Borrowdale, Harare, while in Bulawayo they are gathered at Cde Nkala’s house at House Number 9 Eastwood Road, Woodlands.

Cde Nkala is survived by his wife, Thandiwe, eight children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.