The Sunday Mail
Bulawayo Bureau
Zanu-PF Bulawayo province is awaiting clarification on the province that Peace and Reconciliation Commission Chair Cde Cyril Enock Ndebele belonged to before recommending that he be accorded hero status. Cde Ndebele (83) died in Harare last Friday after being airlifted from Mater Dei Hospital, Bulawayo, where he had been admitted for an undisclosed ailment.Zanu-PF Bulawayo provincial chairperson Cde Denis Ndlovu said, “The position of Cde Ndebele is not clear to us. We are not sure if he belongs to Matabeleland South or Bulawayo. “The Midlands province may also want to say they worked with him and he belongs to them. We are awaiting clarification on that matter before we take a position.”
Cde Ndebele joined the African National Congress in South Africa in 1960, while he was a student at the University of Natal.
He earned a law degree from Queens University, Belfast in 1970, and became Zapu chairperson in 1970 after returning to Zimbabwe.
Cde Ndebele was a member of the Patriotic Front’s legal team in the Geneva, Malta and Lancaster House conferences, leading to the country’s independence in 1980.
He later became a councillor in Bulawayo and eventually a Member of Parliament in 1990.
As a law maker, he was the chairperson of the Privileges Committee and the Parliamentary Legal Committee.
He rose to become Speaker of Parliament in 1995, a position he held until 2000. He is credited with creating the Parliamentary Reform Committee which spearheaded far-reaching changes to the Legislative Assembly.
He is survived by his wife, children and several grandchildren.
Mourners are gathered at his Bulawayo residence — Plot 7B in Woodville suburb.
