President Mnangagwa presides over national heroine Mandeya’s burial

Image: InfoZimZw

This morning, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is presiding over the burial of Air Vice Marshal (Rtd) Winnie Cabby Mandeya at the National Heroes Acre.

Mandeya, a pioneering Senior Officer of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, passed on in the early hours of 28 April 2025 at a local hospital in Harare.

She was 64.

Air Vice Marshal (Rtd) Winnie Cabby Mandeya, whose nom de guerre was Cabby Rujekorwehondo, was born on 14 July 1960, in Rusape.

At the age of 15, Mandeya joined the liberation struggle as a ZANLA cadre.

She briefly stayed at Zhunda and Nyadzonia camps in Mozambique before going to Tanzania, where she completed Basic Military Training at Nachingweya.

Following her training, she was deployed to Gaza Province, where she operated as a cadre until 1978.

She completed a medical course that covered basic obstetrics and gyneacology, basic nursing, and basic peadiatrics.

Mandeya was among the few who survived when Chimoio and Nyadzonia camps witnessed the first of the many Rhodesia forces’ genocidal massacres of Zimbabwean refugees.

At Zimbabwe’s Independence, Mandeya joined the President’s Department, where she played a key role in the 1981 Commission of Inquiry.

On 1 July 1984, she transferred to the Air Force of Zimbabwe as a Non Commissioned Member.

She rose through the ranks and was commissioned to the rank of Air Lieutenant in 1994.

Zwnews