Dr Muzenda: A people’s servant

On September 20, 2015; Zimbabwe commemorates the 12th anniversary of the death of Vice-President Dr Simon Muzenda, the Soul of the Nation. Our Reporter Tendai Chara travelled to Zvavahera Village in Gutu and spoke to 81-yearold Cde Enias Magaya who got to know the national icon during his teenage years. As the two grew older, they developed a strong bond as they tirelessly worked together in improving the lives of the people of Gutu and the nation at large. Cde Magaya gives an account of Dr Muzenda in his own words, read on.

IFIRST met Dr Simon Muzenda in 1948 when I was introduced to him by my brother, Parunobva, who was the Vice-President’s best friend. Parunobva is now late. Although Dr Muzenda’s parents’ home was in Zvavahera Village, the VP grew up in Nyamande Village where he lived with his maternal grandfather.

I would accompany my brother as he visited Dr Muzenda there.

As a young man, VaMuzenda was always cheerful and cracked jokes often.

He, however, left for Mvuma and only resurfaced in Zvavahera after Independence.

The first thing that he did after returning from the war of liberation was to come to Zvavahera where he presented himself to the people.

It was painful to then see him return to Mvuma where he had established himself.

Upon realising that Gutu desperately needed his services, the local community sent me to go to Harare and plead with Dr Muzenda to come back and represent the people of Gutu.

Together with Mr Mutero, we trav- elled to the capital city and met Dr Muzenda, pleading with him to return to Gutu and represent its people in Parliament, just as we had been sent to do.

Dr Muzenda argued that the people of Mvuma also needed him as much as the people of Gutu did.

I will never forget the day that Dr Muzenda announced that he was finally coming home.

Then he is the one who influenced me to become a politician.

One day, he asked me whether I was interested in representing the people of Ward 9, Gutu, as a Councillor. I gladly said, “Yes!” For more than 10 years, I was a Coun- cillor and it was during this period that my friendship with Dr Muzenda flourished.

We were more than comrades-inarms.

Every weekend, he made sure that he was at Zvavahera where he had started a number of self-help projects.

He would often come to my home unannounced.

At first, my wife would panic each time he visited in this manner as she did not know what food to prepare for a Vice-President.

But Dr Muzenda would eat almost any food variety.

However, his most preferred dishes were the traditional ones.

On one occasion when he came around to my house unannounced as usual, he asked me to show him where the garden was.

I did and to my astonishment, he headed straight into the sea of green.

Minutes later he returned holding tender and crispy vegetables. He gave them to my wife and asked her to cook them for him.

My family was baffled by this act of humility.

At times he would also ask my wife to prepare cabbage lavished with peanut butter and devour his meal like a hungry lion.

Often times, we would just sit, talk and enjoy the sunshine.

I prefer not to talk much about the numerous projects that he initiated for the people of Gutu as these are now public knowledge.

Dr Muzenda was kind-hearted and selfless.

Yearly as we moved towards Christmas, he would invite both the young and old to his house and shower them with gifts.

He liked dancing, reciting poems and beating traditional drums.

We always looked forward to the time when Dr Muzenda would host us at his home. We greatly miss that time. The current crop of community leaders are not interested in mixing and mingling with “ordinary” people. They seem rather elitist. Dr Muzenda was not like that, not at all.

He pumped out a lot of money to help disadvantaged people.

His tractors were used to till his neighbours’ fields for free.

Hundreds of children had their school fees paid by the late Vice-President.

A fighter for the downtrodden, I remember Dr Muzenda once intervened and engaged a mission school that was not enrolling students from other churches. As a result of Dr Muzenda’s intervention, the school changed its admission policy and one of my daughters ended up attending classes at this learning institution.

Unlike some of today’s leaders who are after self-enrichment, Dr Muzenda did not seek to be rich. Instead, he gave to the needy. Dr Muzenda is irreplaceable.