President mourns Ambassador Evelyn Kawonza

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has sent a message of condolence to the Kawonza family following the death of Ambassador Evelyne Kawonza who was a long serving Director of State Occasions in his office.

Amb Kawonza died on Friday last week.

“The death yesterday of Ambassador Evelyne Kawonza following a long period of illness has robbed our Nation of a long serving civil servant and a loyal and diligent Ambassador. A longtime Director of State Occasions in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Ambassador Kawonza belonged to a pioneering crop of civil servants who shaped and manned our Government systems from Independence in 1980 when the country suffered from a dearth of skills in the civil service,” he said.

President Mnangagwa said Amb Kawonza served the country diligently.

“She served the Government without blemish, a proud record which saw her rise through the ranks until she became Zimbabwe’s Ambassador in different parts of the world for more than a decade. A distinguished farmer, Ambassador Kawonza would cut a name for herself as a prominent potato seed producer in Mashonaland West where she farmed,” he added.

President Mnangagwa said after defending the Land Reform Programme in Western capitals during her tenure as an Ambassador, Amb Kawonza proceeded to demonstrate what the new indigenous farmers could do once given access to their heritage.

“We have lost a humble civil servant and a hardworking citizen who believed in her own country and served it wholeheartedly and with honesty. On behalf of the Government, my family and on my own behalf, I wish to express my deepest condolences to the Kawonza family who have lost their loved one. May they derive solace from the distinguished public career of the dear departed, and the high regard in which our Nation held her. May her dear soul rest in eternal peace,” he said.—@ NyembeziMu