Hero Callistus Ndlovu’s illustrious history

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Prof Ndlovu was born on February 9 1936 in Plumtree, where he did his primary and secondary education before joining the National Democratic Party in 1960. He trained as a teacher before enrolling for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Pius XII University College in Lesotho. He became involved with Zapu in 1963 when he was a student in Lesotho.

On completing his degree, Cde Ndlovu came to Bulawayo and taught at Empandeni High School, before moving to Mafakela Government School. From 1966 to 1967, he taught at Mpopoma High School. As a teacher, he was detained in 1966 by the Rhodesian regime, which felt that his influence among African teachers was not good for the regime.

He was detained at Khami Prison in 1966 for promoting the objectives of the Zapu guerrillas and was released after 90 days.

He left the country in 1967 for New York University, where he did his Masters and PhD studies. During the course of his studies at New York University, Prof Ndlovu became very much involved with Zapu, and became the party’s chairperson in North America from 1967 to 1971. He set up an office near the United Nations.

This was quite an important office for Zapu because the party co-ordinated most of its external relations outside Africa, and the office in London, United Kingdom, depended on information from his office. From 1971 to 1980, he was a member of the Revolutionary Council and represented the party at the United Nations and North America. Prof Ndlovu also attended the Geneva talks as a political advisor in the Zapu delegation in 1976, as well as the Lancaster House talks on Zimbabwe for the Zapu delegation. In 2000, Prof Ndlovu was a member of the Constitutional Commission of Zimbabwe.

After independence, Prof Ndlovu was a Central Committee member from 1980 to 1983 and the Bulawayo provincial chairperson of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) from 1984 to 1987. He was a Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1985 and a Member of the Senate from 1985 to 1990. He worked as a director at Carbin Finance and the Group industrial relations manager at Union Carbide Corporation in the early 80s. In 1990, he was an executive consultant with the Treger Group of Companies and a member of the Joint Private Sector Standing Committee to promote trade between Zimbabwe and Botswana.

He also worked as the chief executive officer at Calding Consultants (Pvt) Limited in 1991. Prof Ndlovu was appointed the Minister of Construction between 1982 and 1983 before he was appointed the Minister of Mines from 1983 to 1984. Between 1984 and 1989 he was the Minister of Industry and Commerce. He also worked for the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (Zipam) for several years. The late academic was once chairman of the Board of Directors at NetOne and chairman of the Foundation Task Force of the Gwanda State University. At the time of his death, Prof Ndlovu was a member of the Zanu-PF Central Committee and Bulawayo provincial chairman. He is survived by wife Angeline, several children and seven grandchildren.