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Sansole: A tribute to a great man
Judith Todd, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
June 13, 2009

View this article on the Standard website

Ega Washington Sansole, born in Marondera, Zimbabwe, on September 29, 1942 was named after Booker T Washington whom his father Josias Ndozwi Sansole, linguist, court interpreter and business man, admired for having achieved so much despite a background of slavery.

He was educated at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, now Roma, and, at the peak of white supremacy in Southern Africa, King's College London and Gray's Inn London.

Returning to his country at the height of activity against the illegal Rhodesian Front regime he embarked whole-heartedly on his life's work of resolutely seeking justice for the poor, the oppressed, the traduced and the victimized.

Joining Lazarus & Sarif in Bulawayo, before founding his own firm of Sansole & Senda, he ceaselessly travelled the dangerous roads of war depending on children along the way to indicate where the imbamba yila/sweet potatoes/land mines were concealed, risking his own life to try, most often successfully, to rescue others in remote places from prison, torture or worse.

Post Zimbabwe's attainment of Independence he served for some years as a judge of the High Court. Having been taught the profound lesson by his father of regarding all people as innately good and deserving of respect, he banned the use of handcuffs or shackles on anyone, however dangerous the accused was regarded, appearing before him. From then on, for all the years during and after he had left the Bench, he was affectionately called "the judge" throughout the land.

An astute business man, he served on the boards of many companies including United Refineries, Delta, Zimnat, Blue Ribbon, Wankie Colliery and Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe.

He also became Chairman of Council for the National University of Science and Technology, and the Railway Employment Council. He was an esteemed arbitrator whose services were sought at all levels, academic, business, union, parastatal, and he was eventually appointed a Trustee for the Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa.

The wilful destruction of Zimbabwe by those in power from 1980 was painfully intolerable and he would quietly shake his head, reflectively asking: "How is it possible that we allowed this?" But his colleagues in the brave, short-lived opposition Forum Party remember that he "put so much of his huge personality and his gravitas, his fine intelligence and his good humour" into trying precisely, with them, to stop the harm being done to his country.

His efforts were noted and punished and he was quietly removed from many boards, starting with Delta.

There were also unsuccessful attempts by the state to humiliate him and twice, once as Director of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of the eventually banned Daily News, and the other as Director of United Refineries, he was arrested and kept barefoot overnight by police in Bulawayo.

Released from a night spent in an overcrowded police cell he said, typically, that he had nothing to complain about.

Laughing, for he was a humble man, he described how well he had been treated by his fellow prisoners and how they had called to each other over his head:

"Make more room for the judge!" "Make space by the air for the judge!" "Be quiet! The judge is wanting to sleep!"

His death in South Africa on Monday, June 8, 2009 following an accident the day before, is heart-breaking for his family, his colleagues and friends, for all the many who respected and loved him and for those unknown numbers whose lives he quietly helped to keep ticking along. He leaves Bapsie, his beloved wife of 40 years, his children and his grandchildren to whom a friend wrote: "May the Almighty Lord comfort all those he loved and cared about."

Another sent words of consolation and precious, rare in Zimbabwe, inclusion ". . . he is now in the arms of the Lord where he will be safe and appreciated."

A contemporary of his sons from Bulawayo's Falcon College emailed them: "He had a good innings, your father. I would even go so far as to say he hit a few un-catch-able sixes at the crease."

Finally, and comprehensively, the writer Elinor Sisulu summed up everything about Ega Washington Sansole in four words: What a great man.

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