BY Nkululeko Sibanda
RESPECTED academic and author Sabelo Gatsheni Ndlovu will today deliver the 2019 Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo memorial lecture at the Midlands State University (MSU) campus in Gweru.
The lecture, which is in its fourth leg, is held as part of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo legacy restoration project.
Previous lectures that have been held include at the Witwatersrand (Wits) University, Johannesburg, South Africa (June 2017), Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic, Gwanda (September 2017), and University of Zimbabwe (UZ) campus in June 2018.
Today’s lecture also coincides with the late Vice-President’s birthday, which is celebrated on June 7 every year.
Ndlovu, who is also an author and renowned educationist, has won various awards and was in 2015 awarded with the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards’ Academic Excellence Award.
MSU spokesperson Mirirai Mawere, one of the organisers, told Southern Eye yesterday that about 500 delegates were expected to attend the lecture.
“The preparations for the lecture are on course. We are expecting that 500 guests will be in attendance and most of them are drawn from academic and tertiary education institutions, have already confirmed they will attend,” she said.
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Mawere added that officials from the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Development ministry would also attend the lecture.
“We have confirmation from the host ministry that there are officials who will be in attendance. We have put in place everything to ensure that this event is a success,” Mawere added.
A statement from the organisers of the festivities to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the former Vice-President reads in part: “Indeed, this is a momentous and rare occasion as we kick-start the 20th anniversary commemorations of the passing on of our icon (1st July 1999).
“This is historic in that these events bring together the young and the old in celebrating and honouring the life and legacy of one of the founding fathers of modern Zimbabwe and one of the pioneers of the Zimbabwe liberation struggle.
“Africa is blessed to have produced a distinguished son of the soil, a revered icon, an accomplished scholar, a tested revolutionary, a leader of impeccable liberation war credentials, a visionary, a man of impressive intellectual skills, a role model of African leadership, and a leader whose service to the nation of Zimbabwe is legendary.”
