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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
VETERAN journalist and war veteran Cde Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu will be buried today at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo, his family has said.

Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu died early last Friday morning at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) from a heart ailment. He was 87.
Yesterday, his wife Mrs Caroline Gwakuba Ndlovu said Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu’s funeral service will be held in the morning.

“My husband will be buried tomorrow at the Lady Stanley Cemetery at around 10AM.

“There will be a service at home, number 16 Jungle Road in Trenance from 7.30 AM. That is what we have organised as a family for the burial,” said Mrs Gwakuba Ndlovu.

Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu was born on September 23, 1934 at Dombodema Mission in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South province.

In 2014, Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu was among 21 pioneers of the liberation struggle who received the Liberation and Independence Medals, together with six serving ZDF members and three who were retired.

During the liberation struggle, Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu was the director of publicity and information of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu), between 1964 and 1978.

He once served as the diplomatic representative for Zapu based in Algeria responsible for Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger and Mali.

He also covered countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany.

On behalf of Zapu he participated in a number of the then Organisation of African Unit summits, Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation meetings, United Nations, anti-colonialism committee conferences, Heads of State and several international journalism conferences at places such as in Prague, Pyongyang, Moscow, Berlin, Cairo, Kinshasa, Rome and New Delhi.

From mid-June to mid-July 1979, Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu and Dr Barnabas Dzingai Mutumbuka undertook a lecture tour in Canada on behalf of the Patriotic Front (PF) to apprise Canadians on the socio-political situation in the then Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and why the PF was strongly opposed to the treacherous Muzorewa-Smith regime.

In 1972, Cde Gwakuba Ndlovu was sent to the Soviet Union by Zapu and among his group were now Brigadier-General (Retired) Abel Mazinyane, Colonel (Retired) Thomas “Menu” Ngwenya, late Cde Jack Amos Ngwenya, Cde Phebione Makonese, Cde Easter Ndiweni and Cde Josiah Ncube.

After independence Cde Ndlovu joined the Chronicle as a senior editorial staff member. He was later appointed Features and Supplements Editor for both Chronicle and Sunday News.

The late journalist left Chronicle and The Sunday News in 1984 to join the Munn Publishing Company where he was the contributing editor and regional manager responsible for Matabeleland, the Midlands, Masvingo, Botswana and Zambia.

He left Munn Publishing Company in September 1987 after he was offered a post by Lonrho Zimbabwe as a Public Relations Executive with responsibility over the same region as that he covered with Munn Publishing. Lonrho Zimbabwe later sent him to Swaziland in January 1988, where his responsibility as a consultant at that country’s official newspaper, The Swazi Observer was to revive that publication by training the workers. — @bonganinkunzi