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Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
Late former Bulawayo Town Clerk Dr Michael Mkanyiso Ndubiwa will tomorrow be laid to rest at Lady Stanley Cemetery.

A burial service at Amphitheatre will be held at 8AM.

Dr Ndubiwa was Bulawayo’s first black town clerk who worked for council for 32 years, 15 of them as a top municipal official.

According to his son, Horace, Dr Ndubiwa (86) died on Tuesday at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo where he had gone for his routine dialysis session.

The late Dr Ndubiwa was also described by those who worked with him as a sharp-witted person, a man of great personality and a fundi in local governance who was instrumental in the city’s growth soon after independence.

In an interview yesterday, Horace said the council was helping the family arrange for Dr Ndubiwa’s burial which will be live-streamed, and in accordance with Covid-19 restrictions.

“For now, the only update we have is that burial has been set for Saturday at Lady Stanley and we are hoping to have a service at Amphitheatre. We’re grateful for the help that we continue to receive from council and ideally we should be able to livestream these services so that many people can partake since we are still obligated to adhere to Covid-19 restrictions,” he said.

Bulawayo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube was one of the notable people who visited the Ndubiwa family yesterday to pay her respects.

Born in 1934 in Inyathi, Bubi district in Matabeleland North, Dr Ndubiwa did his primary education in Lower Gweru and came to Mzilikazi High School in Bulawayo for his secondary education between 1945-1952.

Between 1953-1957, he attended school at Tegwani Training Institute in Plumtree. He proceeded to do a BA degree in administration at the then University of Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho which was based in Maseru, graduating in 1967.

In 1972, Dr Ndubiwa attained a Master of Arts in Local Government and Administration from the University of Birmingham (UK). He also held a PhD in social sciences.

Before joining Bulawayo City Council, Dr Ndubiwa worked as an assistant teacher under the African Education Department between January 1958 and December 1958.

From 1959-1961, he worked for the Barclays Bank and later joined the Civil Service between 1961-1962.

Dr Ndubiwa joined Bulawayo City Council (BCC) in 1963 as an administrative assistant (finance) in the City’s Housing and Amenities department.

He left council in 1964 and returned to Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland university to study for a Bachelor of Arts in Administration Degree which he completed in 1967. During his vacations he worked as a temporary administrative assistant before re-joining the council on January 22, 1968 as an administrative assistant in the council’s Housing and Amenities department.

Between 1975 and 1978, Dr Ndubiwa became the senior administrative officer in the Department of Housing and Community Services.

He rose through the ranks to Deputy Town Clerk in 1979 and subsequently took over as the city’s first black Town Clerk in September 1984, taking over from Mr Ian Edmeades. He was the first black person to qualify for a diploma in the Institute of Town Clerks of Southern Africa.

Dr Ndubiwa retired on August 31, 1999.

The late Dr Ndubiwa sat on a number of boards, among them the Censorship Appeal Board (1980-82), Associate Members of the Zimbabwe Institute of Management (1980), Mass Media Trust (1981) executive board of the All-Africa Games (1994), Air Zimbabwe Board (1995), Local Government Board (1996), Ingwebu Breweries, Technical College Advisory Council (1987-1990), Delimitation Committee (1990) and the National Aids Council (Nac) national chairman. — @thamamoe