BREAKING: Top War Vet ‘Naison Ndlovu’ dies

Veteran nationalist and former Deputy Senate president and Zanu PF Central Committee member Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu has died.

He was 87.

Below is the official death announcement:

Fellow Cdes, it is with great sadness that I inform you that Cde Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu passed on at 2am this morning at his daughter’s house in Bulawayo.

He was a ZAPU delegate at the Lancaster House talks in 1979. After Independence,  he became the first black mayor of Bulawayo and was the last Chairman of ZAPU prior to the unity accord. He went on to be an MP and later Senator for Insiza.

The positions he held included that of deputy speaker of Parliament then Senate. He was a Central Committee member at the time of his death.

When the post of Vice President came up after the death of VP Msika, he let John Nkomo take his place as the most senior former ZAPU official.

In recent years he has been unwell and has been away from public life.

The nationalist succumbed to cancer which had troubled him for a long time.

Mourners are gathered at his Luveve 4 home.