Former minister Callistus Ndlovu dies in SA
By Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
ZANU-PF Bulawayo provincial chairman and former Cabinet Minister, Professor Callistus Dingiswayo Ndlovu, has died. Prof Ndlovu, 83, collapsed and died in South Africa yesterday, where he was being treated for pancreatic cancer.
The Zanu-PF Bulawayo province has since requested that he be declared a national hero.
The party’s provincial vice chairperson Christopher Dube said soon after receiving news of his death from his family, the provincial leaders convened a meeting and resolved to submit a request for Prof Ndlovu to be accorded the national hero status.
“Our chairman is gone. We all know him and what he has done for the party and the country.
“We received the news from his family and we found it necessary to convene an urgent meeting to announce the death of our leader so that we agree on his status as a Zanu-PF cadre,” said Dube.
Central Committee member, Angeline Masuku said Prof Ndlovu deserved to be declared a national hero.
“Prof Ndlovu worked hard for both the party and the country. I remember when we arrived in Zambia during the liberation struggle he was already a Central Committee member and he would represent us at the United Nations.
“All Zapu programmes at the camps were led by him and he was responsible for facilitating the provision of medication, books and other necessities at the camps, working closely with the African American Institute” said Masuku.
She said Prof Ndlovu was one of the most consistent party cadres who never looked back since joining the party before independence up to his death.
Prof Ndlovu got involved in Zapu in the early 60s, when he was a student at the Pius XII University College in Lesotho where he was chairman of the Zapu branch of students and residents in Lesotho.
On completing his degree he came to Bulawayo and worked as a teacher 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 and 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 chairman in North America in 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 very much on information from his office.
He later became a member of the Revolutionary Council and was also responsible for many other duties in the party.
After independence, 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 studied at the University of South Africa, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1965 majoring in History, Economics and Political Science.
Four years later, he completed his MA and his PhD after another four years at the New York University in the United States.
He once lectured at the Hofstra University in Long Islands in New York.
Prof Ndlovu also worked for the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (Zipam) for several years.
Dube said funeral arrangements for Prof Ndlovu would be announced in due course. Mourners are gathered at 3 Fletcher Road, Kumalo in Bulawayo. The Chronicle
