×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Zanu PF mourns ‘patriot’ Chinx

News
ZANU PF yesterday said the death of Dickson “Cde Chinx” Chingaira on Friday, had robbed the country of an unflinching patriot whose wartime music inspired liberation war fighters to face the heavily-armed Rhodesian Front, and continued to inspire the nation even after Independence.

ZANU PF yesterday said the death of Dickson “Cde Chinx” Chingaira on Friday, had robbed the country of an unflinching patriot whose wartime music inspired liberation war fighters to face the heavily-armed Rhodesian Front, and continued to inspire the nation even after Independence.

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

Party spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo in a condolence message, said like Zapu’s late Give Nare, Chingaira’s death was a big loss to the country.

“His death has robbed his family, the party Zanu PF and Zimbabwe as a whole of a patriot, a very talented and versatile as well as amicable personality whose songs were a tonic during the liberation struggle and after independence,” Khaya-Moyo said.

“Like his friend and the late Light Machine Gun (LMG) choir master, Nare, who operated in Zambia during the struggle, Chinx’s songs are now part of the liberation history and lasting legacies. Their songs stimulated both Zanla and Zipra cadres into action and helped mobilise the masses into an incredible resistant population.” Chingaira succumbed to cancer at a private hospital in Harare.

He was 61.

At the turn of the century, Chingaira was part of a coterie of singers associated with the Zanu PF party who were used to rump-up pressure on white commercial farmers at the height of the land reform programme.

Zanu PF Harare province has reportedly recommended that Chingaira be declared a national hero although the party’s national administration secretary, Ignatius Chombo, yesterday said he was yet to receive the recommendation.

“I am out of Harare at the moment. I have not yet seen the request, I am going to Harare today (yesterday) and will see from there,” he said.

Chingaira is survived by children and two wives.

In May this year, First Lady Grace Mugabe, courted controversy after she declared that his second wife, Ntombizodwa, does not deserve to be accommodated in a house donated to the family by organisers of the Zimbabwe Music Awards.

She said the property, located in Sentosa suburb in Harare, belonged to Chinx’s first wife, Patricia.