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MDC mourns a hero of real change Gibson Sibanda
Movement for Democratic Change
August 24, 2010

The MDC has learnt with shock and sadness the untimely death of a true national hero, National Healing minister Hon Gibson Jama Sibanda who passed away quietly last night at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo.

Hon Sibanda was a pillar of the struggle for real change, having spent over 40 years in the trenches fighting for democracy in the country of his birth.

He started off as a welfare secretary in ZAPU before joining the trade union movement where he made his mark as the conscience of the worker's struggle for peace, democracy and real freedom.

He was the spirit behind the MDC in its formative years, having spent sleepless nights together with President Morgan Tsvangirai and other democrats in laying the founding stone of this great edifice we now call the MDC. He dies with undoubted paternity rights to this our sordid struggle for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning.

Hon Sibanda was a father, patriot, a democrat, a founding pillar and the cornerstone of the people's struggle for real change. His name shall remain an indelible imprint in the sad narrative of our determined and brave march towards a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning. His soft but wise quietude, his frankness and honesty were the running thread of his patriotic exactitude.

He died as he lived, in the quietness of his general deportment. As he lies in the soft requiem of death, we in the MDC derive comfort in that even his grave shall dismally fail to entomb his rich and brave legacy.

He died in the trenches, fighting for peace in his motherland. We remember him for his passion and quest for justice and national healing as the only solution to the tempest of political violence. We remember his final prayer exactly a month ago; his impassioned plea for peace, justice and national healing at the all-party indaba held at the Rainbow Towers on that historic afternoon of Wednesday, 21 July 2010.As a nation, we must fulfill his dream by creating a violence-free society characterized by peace and tolerance.

We in the MDC join our colleagues in the broad democratic movement, the Sibanda family and the people of Zimbabwe in mourning this great son of the soil. He spent over 40 years in the trenches. He survived torture, detention and violence. Cancer has finally succeeded where the turbulence of repression and violence dismally failed.

We shall forever cherish his rich legacy and his lasting commitment to peace and democracy in Zimbabwe. He bequeathed to the people of Zimbabwe the culture of stoic fortitude and unstinting patriotism in his quest for real change.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

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