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Thandeka Moyo, Chronicle Reporter
PRESIDENT Mugabe has mourned former Local Government Deputy Minister and top Bulawayo lawyer, advocate Lot Senda who was buried at Athlone cemetery in the city yesterday.

Hundreds of people, among them Ministers and representatives of political parties attended the burial of Adv Senda, a liberation war hero who was accorded a state-assisted funeral.

Adv Senda, one of the first black lawyers in Zimbabwe and a former MP for Bulawayo South after being elected on a PF-Zapu ticket in 1985, died last Friday at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo after a short illness at the age of 94.

Among those present during his burial were the Minister for Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Ex-Political Detainees and Restrictees Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube; Small to Medium Enterprises Minister Sithembiso Nyoni; Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo; Senator Angeline Masuku and Zapu president Dumiso Dabengwa among others.

Rtd Col Dube said he had been assigned by President Mugabe to represent him during Adv Senda’s burial.

Mourners heard that before independence adv Senda taught at Hope Fountain together with President Mugabe and later defended freedom fighters in court.

Rtd Col Dube described the late politician and lawyer as a unifier.

“On our way here, I got a call from Minister Sekeramayi telling me that President Mugabe was asking me to represent him and send condolence messages to the Senda family. The fact that he was awarded a liberation hero status means he was an important person to Zimbabwe,” said Rtd Col Dube.

“Adv Senda worked very hard during the liberation struggle as a legal advisor and later served at Bulawayo City Council. He was at one time also appointed the Deputy Minister of Local Government.”

Rtd Col Dube said it was important for Zimbabweans to honour their heroes while they were still alive.

Senator Masuku said Adv Senda was influential in uniting Zimbabweans in the early 1980s as he was part of the legal team that helped craft the Unity Accord of 1987.

“I first met Adv Senda during the liberation struggle. During that time a lot of nationalists were arrested and Adv Senda’s role was to defend such people in court,” said Sen Masuku.

She said after independence, he taught people to shun tribalism.

Sen Masuku said it was disheartening to continue losing elders who were politically mature and relevant in Zimbabwe.

Adv Senda and the late High Court judge Washington Sansole were among the first black lawyers to establish law firms.

Their law firm, Sansole and Senda is still in existence.

The late Adv Senda was born on July 3 in 1922 in Gwabhila, Filabusi in Matabeleland South.

He did his primary education at Gwabhila Primary School and at Tiger Kloof before proceeding to Matopo Mission.

He studied for a Bachelor of Arts in Education at Fort Hare University in South Africa which was his first degree and attained the second one, Bachelor of Law which he attained from Grey Inn, London in 1965.

Adv Senda started working as a school teacher and then a headmaster at various schools which include Dadaya, Wenezi and Hope Fountain where he taught together with President Mugabe.

He also taught at schools in Gweru and Harare in the 1950s. While in Harare, he lived in Highfield and was a neighbour and colleague to the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo and Josiah Chinamano.

In 1965, he protested against the Unilateral Declaration of Independence and left the country to study law in London. In the mid-1970s he came back to the country and started practising.

In 1979, he participated and gave legal advice during the Lancaster House talks and was a legal adviser at the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987.

At that time Adv Senda was a PF-Zapu central committee member.

— @thamamoe