The Sunday Mail
CONDOLENCE MESSAGE FROM MINISTRY OF WAR VETERANS
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The Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Ex-Political Detainees and Restrictees, Honourable Tshinga Judge Dube, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Brigadier-General (Retired) Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi, Principal Directors Rtd Major-Gen Richard Ruwodo, Brig-Gen Chancellor Diye and Brig-Gen James Murozvi, senior management and staff of the ministry, learnt with profound shock and sadness of the sudden and untimely passing on of Cde Alexander Kanengoni, at his home in Warren Park, Harare, on 12th April 2016.
He suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes and succumbed to a suspected heart attack after complaining of chest pains since Monday 11th April 2016.
The medical attention he had received did nothing to save him. Indeed, nothing stops God’s plan. God had chosen to pick yet another flower from his garden within our midst, during a time when we are mourning two national heroines, Amai Victoria Chitepo and Cde Vivian Mwashita.
It was also the week that the President, Cde RG Mugabe, who is also the Patron of War Veterans, held a meeting with 10 000 representatives of surviving War Veterans.
When we reported to the Patron that there are 34 093 surviving War Veterans who were represented by the 10 000 delegates paraded before him on 7th April 2016, we were also counting Cde Kanengoni.
Little did we know that he would depart our midst barely two days after this glorious and historic reunion with our Patron and Commander-in-Chief.
Cde Kanengoni, whose Chimurenga name was Cde Gora, joined the Liberation Struggle under the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army in 1974.
After receiving training in guerilla warfare, he saw combat on the battle front, before returning to Doeroe, Mozambique, in 1976, where he held the position of Camp Political Commissar, being also the Deputy to then Camp Commander Cde Chihambakwe (Moses Mvenge).
He distinguished himself in various positions he held throughout the struggle in a manner which his unfortunate brush with authority during the Vashandi Saga in 1977 did nothing to sway his unwavering commitment to Zimbabwe’s sovereignty, its nationalistic ideals and Zanu-PF’s ideology.
After Independence in 1980, Cde Kanengoni enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe, where he majored in English Literature.
Later, in 1983, he joined the Ministry of Education and Culture as a Project Officer responsible for the education of former combatants and refugees. He worked at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation from 1988 to 2002, after which he retired into farming and writing.
He later joined the weekly Patriot newspaper as Deputy Editor in 2003, a post which he held until his death.
Cde Kanengoni became a writer of international renown through his books titled “Vicious Circle” (1983), “When the Rainbird Cries” (1988), “Echoing Silences” (1997), a short story collection titled “Effortless Tears” (1993) and “Writing Still” (2003).
His incisive writing sought to illuminate the wider dynamics of the liberation struggle.
On behalf of the entire fraternity of war veterans of the struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe and on our own behalf as a ministry, we wish to express our deepest heartfelt condolences to the Kanengoni family.
We wish to condole, especially, with his widow Gladys and his children, Tawanda, Elizabeth, Josephine, Tinashe and Litisha, as well as his grandchildren. To them we say, your loss is not yours alone.
Alexander was bigger than his family. He is a son of the soil and a child of the nation. We are with you in your grief.
Mourners are gathered at No.158, 12th Crescent, in Warren Part D.
May his beloved soul rest in peace. We wish to commit him in God’s eternal embrace and to pledge to continue with the good fight which he fought for the emancipation of our beloved country, Zimbabwe.
The intellectual gap he has left at The Patriot, the writing community and the media fraternity in general will be difficult to fill.
Go well son of the soil.
