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Raymond Jaravaza, [email protected]

DISILLUSIONED by an education system that segregated black learners while propping up privileged white students, an 18-year-old Thekwane High School leaner teamed up with several schoolboys in an impromptu demonstration at the school that landed them behind bars and in the crosshairs of the Rhodesian security forces.

That act of defiance against white minority rule in 1969 at Thekwane High School was the beginning of a long journey in the trenches of the armed struggle for Comrade Siqhoza Mathias Ndlovu.

The epic journey took him to Botswana, Zambia and Donetsk region, in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) where he got training to play a pivotal role in fighting for the independence of the country from British rule.

At that tender age, Cde Ndlovu says he understood the white minority rulers had conjured a grand plan to deprive black learners of quality education and that defiance was the only solution to dismantle the oppressive system and ultimately free the country from the clutches of colonial rule.

“We fought against an oppressive colonial education system that was called ‘pass and go’, which was basically designed to segregate black leaners and that act of defiance landed me and other comrades in police cells in Plumtree,” he told Chronicle. 

“My family immediately knew that my life was in danger and after being released from police cells I boarded a train and escaped into Botswana. I stayed in Botswana for a while but sneaked back into the country along the Mphoengs border area and went to my uncle who was based in the then Salisbury (Harare) at the time,” said Cde Ndlovu.

In 1970, while still a teenager, he was called by another uncle who was a carpenter in Hwange where he got a job as a game scout in the national park.

“During that time all black people who worked in the national park could only work as game scouts while the position of game rangers was reserved for whites only.

“This was another injustice that forced me to abandon the job and cross into Botswana again to join the armed struggle,” he said. 

“I met some comrades in Mahalapye in Botswana in a Soviet trained school where we were taught Russian ideology.

“In 1972 I moved to Lobatse where I met the late Cde Dumiso Dabengwa and he introduced us to Henry Junkie who was an MP for the Botswana National Front,” said Cde Ndlovu. 

“A few years later, I think it must have been in August 1977, that’s when I got a scholarship to go to Russia where I was stationed in the Donetsk region. In Donetsk I worked with superiors such as Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube moving assets from Russia back to the front in Rhodesia to be used in the liberation struggle under a ZAPU training camp,” he said.

After independence in 1980, Cde Ndlovu stayed in Russia to complete his studies in Labour Economics and moved back to Zimbabwe in November 1983.

The following year, he got a job as a Geography teacher at Sobukhazi High School in Mzilikazi before joining the then Ministry of Industry the following year.

“In 1986 I joined the Ministry of Labour, working with Dr Misheck Sibanda (retired Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet) when the ministry was headed by the late Cde John Landa Nkomo,” said Cde Ndlovu. 

“I was also the human resources manager for Caps Holdings as well as working for the Zimbabwe Heritage Trust before retiring to take up farming.”

Cde Ndlovu runs the Sundowns South Farm in Figtree and is into cattle ranching. He is married to Matabeleland South Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Dr Evelyn Ndlovu and the couple has three children. 

Thekwane High School has produced a number of luminaries who have gone on to lead in various sectors such as politics, academia and the legal fraternity.

Founded in 1924 as Tegwani Upper Primary School for boys by Mr Herbert Carter a Methodist Church Missionary, it initially enrolled four boarders and two-day pupils: Elijah Mhlanamano, Mqiqima Mangoye, Jonathan Ntaisi, Dzinqilani Malumo, Vilani Nkobi, and Kangezi Pile.

In 1934, the school admitted its first intake of 11 girls.

It is one of the earliest secondary institutions in the country and is situated near Thekwane River, which takes its name from the hammer-headed stork, “uthekwane”, which used to be common along its banks, and which is depicted on the school badge.

Thekwane has had a difficult recent history, having struggled to re-establish itself after the destruction inflicted during the war of liberation, against a background of financial stringencies.

Throughout this period Thekwane has remained a school of accolades in all life spheres; accolades in quality academic practice, sports, and religious undertakings, among others.