Zimbabwe remembers liberation stalwart, ex-ZAPU intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa

On this day 23rd of May 2019 Zimbabwe lost one fine liberator, former Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) intelligence supremo Dr Dumiso Dabengwa.

Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation posts:

In a statement announcing Dabengwa’s death, the then ZAPU spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa said Dabengwa died following a battle with an undisclosed illness.

“The Zimbabwe and Southern Africa liberation icon Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa has taken rest from the struggle that has spanned all his life since 1939.

“The finest citizen Zimbabwe ever produced, statesman, brave soldier and commander, retired from the long struggle that has seen the liberation from colonialism of the whole Southern Africa region and beyond before contributing to a peaceful development of Zimbabwe post-independence, against the odds that were all scaled against him.

“The ZAPU president passed on today after an equally long and strenuous struggle against illness since November 2018.

“The iconic struggle for Zimbabwe and Southern Africa giant takes a bow as we continue to search for the ever elusive and evasive trophy of an independent, free, fair and democratic nation.”

Meanwhile, during the 1990s, with Joshua Nkomo as vice-president in the revised Zanu (PF) government, Dabengwa took on posts ranging from Home Affairs minister to managing the long-gestating but never funded Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project.

He left government in 2000. In 2008 he abandoned the Zanu (PF) politburo and revived Zapu.

Dabengwa was not happy with how the country was being run, as some point he had this to say:

“Once the people start asking whether Rhodesia was better than Zimbabwe it is a sign that the Government has failed and the gains of the liberation struggle have been completely lost.”

Apparently, as the head of intelligence for Zimbabwe African People’s Revolutionary Army, the armed wing of Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu), Dabengwa faced two enemies in the late seventies: the Rhodesian forces and those of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwean African National Union (Zanu), the nationalist party that split off from Zapu in 1963 and would eventually lead Zimbabwe.

Zwnews