Ndubiwa: A quintessential model for public service
Michael Mkanyiso Ndubiwa, who passed away in Bulawayo on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 at the age of 87 years, was the quintessential model for public service. Although he was born eNyathi in the Bubi district of Matabeleland North province, he was brought up and educated in the City of Bulawayo’s iconic high-density township of Makokoba, popularly known as Old Location or simply eLokitshini.
He served respectively brief stints as a primary school teacher in 1958, a bank clerk from 1959 to 1961 and a civil servant from 1961 to 1962.
His illustrious career with the City of Bulawayo started in 1963 when he became one of the protégés of the legendary Edmund Hugh Ashton, the then director of the housing and amenities department of the Bulawayo City Council (BCC ).
His academic prowess earned him a scholarship, which was tenable at the prestigious Pius XII Catholic University College [the precursor to the National University of Lesotho] in Roma just outside Maseru, the capital city of Lesotho, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 as a mature student at the age of 33 years.
He rejoined the BCC in 1968 and rose through the ranks from the lowly position as an administrative assistant to superintendent of a cluster of high-density townships comprising Mpopoma, Iminyela, Mabutweni and Pelandaba, to senior administrative officer at the head office of the BCC ’s department of housing and community services, to deputy town clerk in 1979 and then reached the giddy heights of town clerk in September 1984.
He had an unquenchable zest for knowledge as evidenced by the fact that in between fulfilling his arduous dual roles as a God-fearing family man and a career public servant, he managed to attain an MA degree in Local Government and Administration from the University of Birmingham in the UK, the coveted membership and fellowship of the then Institute of Town Clerks of Southern Africa as well as a PhD in Social Sciences.
On a personal level, Ndubiwa was more like an elder brother to me as he grew up and went to school with seven of my now late elder siblings in Makokoba and Tegwani [now Thekwane] Mission near Plumtree.
I first came into contact with him in 1966 through tennis when I was 14 years old.
He was a reasonably competent tennis player while I was a whippersnapper top black junior tennis player in the highdensity townships of Bulawayo.
The privilege of interacting with him and others of his ilk like Jerry Wilson Vera, Peter Sivalo Mahlangu and Memo Ernest Khumalo was a huge learning curve for me.
I came into even closer contact with Ndubiwa in January 1974 following my employment by the BCC in the housing and amenities department as the youngest administrative assistant ever at the age of 22 years.
I was armed with what I thought was quite a formidable weapon in the form of a law degree from the then University of Rhodesia.
As if that was not enough, I had the dubious distinction of being the first indigenous administrative assistant to be located at the head office of the BCC ’s department of housing and amenities, responsible for the monitoring and implementation of all approved projects on the Greater Bulawayo Development Plan.
In my brash and youthful exuberance, I had to cover every nook and cranny of Greater Bulawayo for and on behalf of my ultimate boss and godfather, Ashton, in order to make sure that the overall development plan got implemented.
Ndubiwa, together with his contemporary functionaries, notably Mike Masotsha Hove and Josiah Zion Gumede, wasted no time to clip my wings and make me realise that my ultimate boss’ mission could only be accomplished with the concurrence of the mere mortals, who lived and worked in the City of Bulawayo.
I have an enduring memory of an occasion when Hove dressed down Ashton at a briefing session for township superintendents and told him in no uncertain terms that it was contrary to African cultural norms for him (Ashton) to deploy a loose cannon like me — a child that they had seen in nappies — to bug them about whether or not the Greater Bulawayo Plan was on course.
Hove even took the matter up with my parents and, as a result, I was appropriately chastised.
I am eternally grateful to Ndubiwa as well as the late Messrs Hove and Gumede for the nuggets, which they taught me straight from the Old School of Hard Knocks — the University of the World.
Ndubiwa served the BCC for 32 years and 15 of them as the chief executive officer until he retired on August 31, 1999.
He also served, with distinction, on a number of public and private corporate, religious, humanitarian and educational entities.
Ndubiwa was the ultimate epitome of the well-worn cliche that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it, but by all means, improve on it.
He ran his relay race well from where his predecessors like Eddie White and Ian Edmeades had left off when he took over in September 1984 and subsequently handed over the baton at the end of August 1999 to Moffat Ndlovu who, in turn, handed over the reins to Middleton Nyoni.
In a nutshell, Ndubiwa was the last bastion of selfless and ruthless efficiency in public administration.
Whenever the need to do so arose, he stood up to his political principals, the successive mayors of Bulawayo, and actually helped them to have a keener appreciation of their predominantly civic as opposed to executive duties.
It is in no small measure due to you and your predecessors as town clerks that the pre-April 1980 and immediately after-April 1980 crop of mayors was so deeply imbued with their onerous civic responsibilities unlike the current crew which appears to be driven by mercenary considerations that are not remotely concerned and connected with the fundamental interests of the hard-pressed and long-suffering ratepayers of the City of Bulawayo.
My heartfelt condolences go to my sister, Lydia, and the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.