On the morning of Monday, September 15, 2015, we woke up to the distressing news that former Member of Parliament, minister and Zanu PF politburo member Dr Sikhanyiso Duke Ndlovu had sadly passed on after succumbing to a stroke that he suffered a week earlier. By his untimely passing, the education, journalism and political sectors have lost one of their pioneers.
LAWTON HIKWA
I recall his kindnesses to the journalism sector, in particular, where he served as patron of the Bulawayo Press Club; and, appreciate how much he will be missed by all who knew him. He was a great man whose works endeared him to those that knew and worked with him.
Pericles (circa 500-429 BC), a great Athenian Greek commander, orator and statesman, said: “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Ndlovu surely wove much into the lives of many. I personally learnt a great deal of things from him in the many years I knew him.
While Ndlovu was largely a politician, he was also a seasoned scholar and educationist. His roles, among others, as the founding director of the Zimbabwe Distance Education College (Zdeco); chairman of the Zimbabwe National Army Schools Welfare Trust; trustee of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo National Foundation; patron of Bongani Orphanage; and, founder Vice-Chancellor of the University Without Walls point to that.
On many occasions, Ndlovu struck me as a rare breed of leader who effortlessly separated his political and professional roles. On the political front, he was a strong believer in leadership that was accountable. He encouraged political leaders from Bulawayo and the region and indeed the nation, to focus and expend their energies on the needs of their people rather than ideological differences. He always emphasised the fact that Zimbabwe was one and that its people needed to be unified by a search for a common future and desired prosperity.
He also possessed rare dexterity in dealing with controversies, always quick to support common understanding of issues rather than what was potentially divisive. This he showed by diligently attending to his constituency when he was a Member of Parliament. He would still maintain his visibility at many local and national functions well after he had left Parliament.
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Ndlovu was a very humble and unassuming character. My friend Tapfuma Machakaire and I once tried to document his biography on so many occasions. The project would be under the directorship of the late Mandla, Ndlovu’s son who pre-deceased him. For that reason, the project stalled. Nevertheless, Machakaire and I would enjoy Ndlovu’s friendship and hospitality on so many occasions that we feel his passing in a very personal sense.
This tribute is more of a celebration of the life of Ndlovu while at the same time, though difficult or even complicated to perceive, an affirmation to his family, relatives, colleagues and friends that their dear departed has been freed from all sickness and sorrow that he experienced near the end of his earthly life. All his aches and pains and sleeplessness are ended. Death itself has no power to hurt; Ndlovu is at peace.
God’s love is stronger than death — He brought us life, He heals the broken-hearted — that is why as we grieve our dearly departed Ndlovu, we feel drawn closer to God through closeness to each other in loving care and in faithfulness. That is God’s plan with all of us. Matthew 5 teaches us that: “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” We are further assured in Psalm 46: 1 that: “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help us in times of trouble.”
Ndlovu and his dear wife Rose were almost excessively compulsive about their children. This is expressed in a way of a compliment. They brought them up well. Their sons and daughters were ever well turned out just like their mother. Ndlovu himself was also a very neat man with a high sense of fashion and a good taste for wonderful things in life. He prioritised his family, home, relatives, friends, colleagues, community and country.
To the Ndlovu family, relatives, friends, colleagues and the nation at large, I wish to say that the death of a loved one gives us a God-prescribed chance to use it as a tool for our own cherishment of where we are from and going. It draws us closer to God and indeed to each other in very many respects.
For ourselves and for Ndlovu, we declaratively thank God who gives us the victory over life and death, despair and dismay, victory over all things.
May his dear departed soul rest in eternal peace.
*Dr Lawton Hikwa is the Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Information Science at the National University of Science and Technology
