DETHRONED Ntabazinduna traditional leader, Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni’s mother Agnes Masuku warned the MDC after its formation in 1999 that removing then President Robert Mugabe was never going to be easy, but a struggle.
This was revealed by MDC vice-president Welshman Ncube when he led an opposition party delegation to the Ndiweni family in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North province, on Friday to offer condolences following the death of Masuku on Wednesday last week.
He described Masuku, who died at 96, as the country’s unsung heroine.
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The family has said burial arrangements will be announced this week.
Ncube said the MDC top leadership visited the late paramount Chief Khayisa in 1999 after the formation of the party to seek advice, with Masuku warning them that it was “going to be a long struggle”.
“When we came here in 1999, we had just formed the MDC. Myself, Gibson Sibanda, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, Paul Themba Nyathi and Esaph Mdlongwa, we came here to seek advice on the challenges in our country, particularly on the political challenges we faced in this region,” he said.
“The irony of it all is at that time, we were very enthusiastic that this was going to be a very short struggle. I remember at that time Masuku telling us that we faced a long struggle. At that time, I did not understand her. She lived a good life, and to pass away at her age is a blessing.”
The MDC leaders have been victims of political violence perpetrated by State security organs. A number of MDC leaders have been beaten and arrested, while the late party founder Morgan Tsvangirai was once charged with treason.
In 2008, over 200 opposition supporters were killed, several arrested and hundreds forced to flee their homes in a presidential run-off poll campaign period that Tsvangirai boycotted as a result of the violence.
“We know that in terms of our history, these (Masuku) are some of the powerful unsung heroes behind the many names you see in our social and political spaces,” Ncube added.
According to a 2018 petition by Masuku to President Emmerson Mnangagwa over the stalled installation of her son, Nhlanhlayamangwe, as chief, “all the chiefs in Matabeleland North and South passed through her hands …”
The petition was filed through her lawyers
from Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers.
Ndiweni is challenging his removal as Ntabazinduna chief by the Local Government ministry, which claimed that his chieftainship was being contested by his elder brother, Joram, who claims to be the heir-apparent.
