Dulini Ncube mourned

News
THE MDC-Renewal team has said it was pained by the death of the united MDC founding treasurer-general Fletcher Dulini Ncube last week on Thursday on the same day that the opposition family was celebrating its 15th anniversary.

THE MDC-Renewal team has said it was pained by the death of the united MDC founding treasurer-general Fletcher Dulini Ncube last week on Thursday on the same day that the opposition family was celebrating its 15th anniversary.

SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER

Dulini Ncube (71), died at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo after a long battle with diabetes.

At the time of his death, he was chairperson of the Welshman Ncube-led MDC council of elders.

The renewal team described Dulini Ncube as a solid defender of human rights, who was detained at Gonakudzingwa by the Ian Smith regime during the armed struggle independence and was detained in 2002 after being falsely accused of murdering Zanu PF war veteran Cain Nkala.

He was arrested in 2002 together with the late Remember Moyo and Khethani Sibanda on false charges of killing Nkala.

Moyo and Sibanda have since died as a result of injuries suffered in custody. It said Dulini Ncube was seriously tortured and denied medical attention that when he was acquitted, he had lost sight in one eye.

“Despite the brutality of his persecutors, Dulini Ncube remained a committed democrat and fighter for a real democratic Zimbabwe. His sole ambition was that all the people of Zimbabwe should benefit from the freedoms of the liberation struggle,” the renewal team said in statement.

“His dream was to end the now-out-of-control corruption and looting in Zanu PF, misgoverning of the economy and misrule of the country by the same regime.”

The statement said the renewal team would continue to fight to fulfil the aspirations of Dulini Ncube and other departed colleagues.

MDC-T guardian council member Norman Mabhena mourned Dulini Ncube saying he was a close friend and a true revolutionary.

“To those of us who were privileged to work with him, we will always remember him as a principled and brave fighter, a revolutionary of immense courage, a man who spoke his mind no matter the consequences. He was indeed a political dynamite of a rare quality,” said Mabhena.

Mabhena said Dulini Ncube belonged to a pioneering generation that was instrumental in transforming and escalating resistance to settler colonial rule into an armed phase.

“Then generation of brave fighters faced enormous risks and difficulties in laying the ground work for the protracted struggle. Indeed it was only through deep love of their people and country that they were subjected to brutal and severe torture by the special branch people. Dulini Ncube was among the first Africans restricted during the large scale detentions,” he said.

Dulini Ncube is set to be buried this week in Bulawayo. Mourners are gathered at number 7 Oxford Road, Hillside, Bulawayo.