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MDC activist Nhamo Musekiwa dies
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
October 25, 2007

Nhamo Musekiwa, an MDC activist who was also President Morgan Tsvangirai's bodyguard since the formation of the MDC in 1999, died yesterday in a South African hospital.

He was 37 when he passed away yesterday afternoon.

Musekiwa was an opinion and community leader before the formation of the MDC. He was a pioneer of the MDC's youth assembly; a pathfinder who traveled the length and breadth of the country helping in creating structures and spreading the gospel of change in the formative years of our struggle.

Musekiwa was recuperating in hospital following injuries he sustained when he was brutally assaulted and tortured, together with President Tsvangirai and other senior party leaders, during the aborted prayer meeting in the working-class suburb of Highfield in Harare on 11 March 2007.

President Morgan Tsvangirai, his family, the party's staff and members and supporters have received the news of Musekiwa's death with grief and sorrow.

The story of the long and arduous road to a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning will never be complete without the mention of Nhamo Musekiwa, a committed man who was so faithful, so committed to the struggle and so trustworthy as to be entrusted with the security and life of the President.

Musekiwa, who shared the same cell and helped President Tsvangirai when he was fainting during their detention at Borrowdale police station in March, has been recuperating in South Africa since his brutal and barbaric assault.

His brother, Caisson, says Musekiwa never recovered from the brutal assault and has been vomiting blood since the fateful day on 11 March 2007.

He was born on 20 April, 1970, in Mwenezi Communal Area in Neshuro village in Masvingo Province.

He attended Mwenezi Primary School before proceeding to Zengeza High School in Chitungwiza for his secondary education from 1985 to 1990.

After the completion of his secondary education, he did a course in carpentry and worked for several years in the informal sector before joining the MDC's Presidential security team at the party's inception in 1999.

He travelled with President Tsvangirai in all the country's provinces. He encountered all the life-threatening incidences with the President since 1999, including the fateful and brutal assaults in Machipisa which marked his slow and painful journey to his untimely death.

Musekiwa is survived by his wife Edina. Burial arrangements are still in progress.

The President, his family and all MDC supporters, are still shocked by the death of one of the illustrious heroes of this struggle.

Musekiwa is our hero. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

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