PROMINENT Victoria Falls businessman and MDC-T politician Peter Nyoni died at his home on Monday after a short illness. Report by Richard Muponde Senior Reporter
Nyoni, who was the MDC-T ward 5 chairperson, joined the party at its inception in 1999.
The politician, who owned several retail outlets in the resort town, was buried on Wednesday at Chinotimba Cemetery in Victoria Falls where he was given a hero’s send-off by mourners from across the political divide.
Ward 5 councillor Paulos Chiliwede said Nyoni worked tirelessly for the MDC-T since its formation and particularly during the 2002 presidential election and the 2008 harmonised polls.
“We worked together tirelessly in the 2002 presidential elections. We managed to campaign for the party and it won favourable results as Tose Sansole became the mayor and another Peter Nyoni became the first MDC MP in Victoria Falls,” said Chiliwede.
Chiliwede recounted that Nyoni graduated from trade unionism where he was a district member of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions Victoria Falls branch before the MDC’s formation.
“People in Zanu PF once approached him so that he would become an MP or senator, but he refused. He came to me and told me that Zanu PF people were pestering him, but he insisted to me that he would not do that. In 2008 when I was running for my second term as councillor, he supported me. We were like brothers. Nyoni was the kind of man who supported anyone regardless of tribe, colour or region. This gap is difficult to fill. We really lost a hero,” he said Nyoni is survived by his wife Irene and three children.
