The body of the late national hero Joshua Malinga arrived at Charles Gumbo Barracks yesterday, in Harare from Bulawayo were it lay in state ahead of burial set for this Friday at the National Heroes Acre.

President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is expected to preside over Malinga’s burial.

Malinga who was Special Advisor to the President, former Mayor of the City of Bulawayo and Zanu-PF Politburo died last week in Bulawayo aged 79.

He was declared a National Hero by President Mnangagwa.

Malinga was born on 20 April 1944 in Filabusi. He was born able-bodied and was attacked by Polio at a very young age.

He grew up in Filabusi and would remain at home looking after the grains while others took to the fields.

He was then taken to Bulawayo by the late Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu who took him to Jairos Jiri center where he went to school and later trained as a cobbler.

As a young man he was touched by how the blacks were treated by the whites leading him to join politics.

Zwnews