Tsholotsho MP succumbs to Covid-19

By Leonard Ncube

Tsholotsho South legislator and Zanu-PF Central Committee member Zenzo Sibanda has died due to Covid-19 complications.
Sibanda who was also Zanu-PF Matabeleland North Secretary for Transport and Welfare, died at United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) in the early hours of yesterday.

He reportedly tested Covid-19 positive last week and was admitted to UBH as he was having difficulty breathing.
Sibanda, a registered traditional healer well-known in Tsholotsho, was put on oxygen before his death.

His ID indicates that he was aged 50 while a biography he wrote to Zanu-PF stated that he was born in 1964 and only obtained a birth certificate in the 1970s when he moved from his birth area in Mberengwa to stay with his mother in Gwanda after the arrest of his father by the settler regime.

Matabeleland North Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Richard Moyo said Sibanda’s death was a loss to the province.

“I received a call early in the morning informing me about his death. He was on oxygen support for three days and this is a big loss to the province and party. We have told the family to prepare paperwork while as a party we have also written a request for him to be declared a liberation hero,” he said.

Sibanda did his education in Gwanda before working as a bakery attendant in Chegutu between 1987 and 1989.

Between 1990 and 1992 he was employed as a security guard and that is the time he relocated to Tsholotsho where his aunt was staying.
Sibanda was elected district youth chairman for Tsholotsho in 1996 and was secretary for production and labour between 1998 and 2000.

Between 2001 and 2005 he worked as ward development officer for Ward 17 in Tsholotsho in the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation.

Sibanda was elected as an executive member for the Zanu-PF Youth League in Matabeleland North in 2003 before being elevated to Secretary for Administration.

He was Zanu-PF candidate for Tsholotsho South in the 2008 harmonised election which was won by the MDC, but he won the election in 2013 and retained the seat in the 2018 elections.

In 2012, Sibanda was elected Matabeleland North provincial secretary for transport and welfare, a position he held until the time of his death.

He was elected into the Central Committee in 2014.

He is survived by 10 children and a wife. The Chronicle