OPPOSITION Zapu has described the death of Bulawayo lawyer, Advocate Stephen Nkiwane, as a great loss to the nation, considering his contributions to the country since the liberation struggle.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Nkiwane (67) died on Monday in Namibia and arrangements were still being made to repatriate his body to Zimbabwe for burial.
At the time of his death, Nkiwane was working as a special adviser to Namibia’s Attorney-General, reports say.
Prior to his engagement in Namibia, Nkiwane was the Zapu national secretary for legal affairs, having been elected at the party’s 2010 congress in Bulawayo.
“He also contributed immensely to the justice system in Zimbabwe as a legal practitioner,” Zapu’s information department said in a Press statement yesterday.
“We at Zapu shall forever cherish the contribution Nkiwane made during the liberation struggle that brought independence to the country,” the statement said.
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“He provided leadership both to Zapu and Zipra forces and we cannot exclude his towering name in the history of this nation . . . we would like to extend our condolences to the Nkiwane family, Zapu, the legal society both in Zimbabwe and Namibia as well as the nation at large for such a great loss of the gallant son of the soil.”
Nkiwane is survived by four children and one grandchild.
Mourners are gathered at 16 Hattingh Road, Kingsdale in Bulawayo.
Meanwhile, Zapu has criticised the $4 billion 2016 National Budget presented by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa last week, saying only a devolution-based budget would lift Zimbabwe from its predicament.
Zapu treasurer-general, Jonathan Dube said the 2016 budget would do little to ease the economic ills facing the nation because it was not devolution-centred, an element he argues “is the easiest way out of this mess”.
“The government, through the Finance ministry, should have made wide-ranging consultations with the nation as to how they could have prescribed a devolution-based national budget,” he said in a statement.
“This is the easiest way out of this mess of an economy bearing in mind that the people of Zimbabwe have solutions to economic problems we face today.
“Each part of the country, though suffering from problems of Zanu PF’s uninformed centralised governance system, has clear corrective means and measures and this government must swallow its pride and come back to the people for ideas. People in Mutare know best how to utilise the diamond wealth they sit on and in the process, how revenue for the fiscus can be collected and distributed among themselves.”
The new Constitution guarantees devolution of power, but nothing has been done to ensure that the system of governance is implemented.
“Instead, the minister could have made life easier for himself and his masters by actually budgeting for the full implementation of devolution of power. This, if done, will take off the burden from the blank and clueless government as to revenue collection and distribution thereof,” Dube said.
“It was going to be easy for the minister to know which area can accommodate what special economic activity, as people will know the correct remedy and prescription to their economic activities and their problems.”
