Former Mhondoro West MP and Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission board chairperson Mavis Chidzonga has died.
She was 58.
Reports suggested she succumbed to malaria on Sunday at her Borrowdale home in Harare. Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa said her death was a loss to the country. “She was a very good person. She was really dynamic,” Mutasa said last night.
“She was the person who showed direction about the need for freedom for women and she went along with the President’s desires to liberate women.” Chidzonga is expected to be buried tomorrow in Gokwe.
She cut her political milk teeth in 1973 in the UK where her role was raising funds for the freedom fighters as Zanu PF secretary of UK and Western Europe district, a post she held for seven years. Between 1980 and 1990, Chidzonga served as secretary for Harare Central and Greendale districts. From 1990 to 2000, Chidzonga served in the Mashonaland West Zanu PF province as first secretary for health and then secretary for administration.
The passion to rise on the political ladder saw the energetic Chidzonga landing the MP seat for Mhondoro constituency in 1995 which she said was an eyeopener.
Chidzonga also served as Zanu PF Women’s League national secretary for legal affairs and women’s rights and a member of Zanu PFs central committee. A former teacher, Chidzonga was the brains behind the setting-up of Kaguvi and Mount Hampden training centres.
Chidzonga sat on the boards of the Cold Storage Company and Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco).
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She also served as council member for the University of Zimbabwe, and was a member of organisations such as the Women’s Multi-Million Roundtable, Zimbabwe Women in Politics, Zimbabwe Women’s Resources Centre Network, Bio-diversity Network in Southern Africa and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, among others.
She is survived by her husband Midion and two children.
In other sad news, Harare City Council committee manager Forbes Fitz-Gerald Chibhamu has died. He was 58.
Chibhamu, who had been a cancer patient, died at his home in Milton Park, Harare.
A family friend, Richard Mashave, described Chibhamu as a gentle, kind and unassuming character.
Chibhamu was in the City of Harare executive body. From 1998, he was personal assistant to then executive mayor the late national hero Solomon Tawengwa.
He is survived by his wife Evelyn and four children. Mourners are gathered at Number 54 Van Praagh Avenue, Milton Park.
