Aged 88. She passed away at The Avenues Clinic in Harare after battling hypertension and diabetes. She was the widow of the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda. During the war of liberation, she single-handedly raised her children when her husband was jailed by the Smith Regime.
The most trying time in her life was around 1977 when she lost one of her daughters, Theresa, who was about 18-years-old in the Chomoio Massacre in Mozambique. Theresa had joined the war alongside her siblings who include Tsitsi, who is now Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister, Vitalis, a pilot and Air Zimbabwe chief executive and Mordester. Mbuya Muzenda was at the family home in Mvuma when news of the Chimoio Massacre traversed the region. She was working as a nurse in the mining town. Her other children survived the massacre after going outside their room to fetch drinking water. The pain of her daughter's death and the failure to see where she was buried continued to haunt her up to her death. According to Tongai Muzenda, his mother became hypertensive when she heard the sad news about Theresa's death in Chimoio and had been battling the disease since then. She soldiered on despite her loss and continued to provide freedom fighters with medication and sometimes health services since she was a trained nurse.
Mbuya Muzenda would smuggle drugs into freedom fighters' camps and sometimes attending to those with different ailments despite the disapproval of her bosses. By that time it was not easy for freedom fighters, let alone ordinary black people to get medication because the Smith regime's laws were restrictive. Mbuya Muzenda confronted the Rhodesian colonial government head-on while battling with the administration over underpaid black professionals like her. She fought vigorously to be treated equally with her white counterparts. The late heroine was eventually arrested and detained for supporting her husband in the struggle for independence. The torture, incarceration and ill-treatment did not deter Mbuya Muzenda as she defied the threats of imprisonment and loss of employment. She remained unshaken and supported her nationalist husband and never betrayed the protracted struggle. However, the pain of losing a daughter at a tender age could not easily disappear from her mind.
Each time she recalled her experiences in the liberation war, Mbuya Muzenda's face showed signs of distress, especially when she spoke about her late husband who she always described as a down to earth man.
Born on October 25, 1928 in Matsikidze Village, Masvingo District, Mbuya Muzenda attained Standard Six at Gokomere Mission before training as a nurse at Makumbe Mission Hospital, Chinhamora. She then worked at one of the municipal hospitals in Bulawayo in the 1950s. In 1955 she married the late VP Muzenda who was already a trade unionist demonstrating against the Rhodesian settler government along the likes of Cde Benjamin Burombo. Mbuya Muzenda stood by her husband in the cause to liberate Zimbabwe that started with the founding of the African National Voice Association in Bulawayo in 1947 in which the late VP Muzenda was elected secretary-general.
The most trying time in her life was around 1977 when she lost one of her daughters, Theresa, who was about 18-years-old in the Chomoio Massacre in Mozambique. Theresa had joined the war alongside her siblings who include Tsitsi, who is now Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister, Vitalis, a pilot and Air Zimbabwe chief executive and Mordester. Mbuya Muzenda was at the family home in Mvuma when news of the Chimoio Massacre traversed the region. She was working as a nurse in the mining town. Her other children survived the massacre after going outside their room to fetch drinking water. The pain of her daughter's death and the failure to see where she was buried continued to haunt her up to her death. According to Tongai Muzenda, his mother became hypertensive when she heard the sad news about Theresa's death in Chimoio and had been battling the disease since then. She soldiered on despite her loss and continued to provide freedom fighters with medication and sometimes health services since she was a trained nurse.
Mbuya Muzenda would smuggle drugs into freedom fighters' camps and sometimes attending to those with different ailments despite the disapproval of her bosses. By that time it was not easy for freedom fighters, let alone ordinary black people to get medication because the Smith regime's laws were restrictive. Mbuya Muzenda confronted the Rhodesian colonial government head-on while battling with the administration over underpaid black professionals like her. She fought vigorously to be treated equally with her white counterparts. The late heroine was eventually arrested and detained for supporting her husband in the struggle for independence. The torture, incarceration and ill-treatment did not deter Mbuya Muzenda as she defied the threats of imprisonment and loss of employment. She remained unshaken and supported her nationalist husband and never betrayed the protracted struggle. However, the pain of losing a daughter at a tender age could not easily disappear from her mind.
Each time she recalled her experiences in the liberation war, Mbuya Muzenda's face showed signs of distress, especially when she spoke about her late husband who she always described as a down to earth man.
Born on October 25, 1928 in Matsikidze Village, Masvingo District, Mbuya Muzenda attained Standard Six at Gokomere Mission before training as a nurse at Makumbe Mission Hospital, Chinhamora. She then worked at one of the municipal hospitals in Bulawayo in the 1950s. In 1955 she married the late VP Muzenda who was already a trade unionist demonstrating against the Rhodesian settler government along the likes of Cde Benjamin Burombo. Mbuya Muzenda stood by her husband in the cause to liberate Zimbabwe that started with the founding of the African National Voice Association in Bulawayo in 1947 in which the late VP Muzenda was elected secretary-general.
Aged 88. She passed away at The Avenues Clinic in Harare after battling hypertension and diabetes. She was the widow of the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda. During the war of liberation, she single-handedly raised her children when her husband was jailed by the Smith Regime.
The most trying time in her life was around 1977 when she lost one of her daughters, Theresa, who was about 18-years-old in the Chomoio Massacre in Mozambique. Theresa had joined the war alongside her siblings who include Tsitsi, who is now Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister, Vitalis, a pilot and Air Zimbabwe chief executive and Mordester. Mbuya Muzenda was at the family home in Mvuma when news of the Chimoio Massacre traversed the region. She was working as a nurse in the mining town. Her other children survived the massacre after going outside their room to fetch drinking water. The pain of her daughter's death and the failure to see where she was buried continued to haunt her up to her death. According to Tongai Muzenda, his mother became hypertensive when she heard the sad news about Theresa's death in Chimoio and had been battling the disease since then. She soldiered on despite her loss and continued to provide freedom fighters with medication and sometimes health services since she was a trained nurse.
Mbuya Muzenda would smuggle drugs into freedom fighters' camps and sometimes attending to those with different ailments despite the disapproval of her bosses. By that time it was not easy for freedom fighters, let alone ordinary black people to get medication because the Smith regime's laws were restrictive. Mbuya Muzenda confronted the Rhodesian colonial government head-on while battling with the administration over underpaid black professionals like her. She fought vigorously to be treated equally with her white counterparts. The late heroine was eventually arrested and detained for supporting her husband in the struggle for independence. The torture, incarceration and ill-treatment did not deter Mbuya Muzenda as she defied the threats of imprisonment and loss of employment. She remained unshaken and supported her nationalist husband and never betrayed the protracted struggle. However, the pain of losing a daughter at a tender age could not easily disappear from her mind.
Each time she recalled her experiences in the liberation war, Mbuya Muzenda's face showed signs of distress, especially when she spoke about her late husband who she always described as a down to earth man.
Born on October 25, 1928 in Matsikidze Village, Masvingo District, Mbuya Muzenda attained Standard Six at Gokomere Mission before training as a nurse at Makumbe Mission Hospital, Chinhamora. She then worked at one of the municipal hospitals in Bulawayo in the 1950s. In 1955 she married the late VP Muzenda who was already a trade unionist demonstrating against the Rhodesian settler government along the likes of Cde Benjamin Burombo. Mbuya Muzenda stood by her husband in the cause to liberate Zimbabwe that started with the founding of the African National Voice Association in Bulawayo in 1947 in which the late VP Muzenda was elected secretary-general.
The most trying time in her life was around 1977 when she lost one of her daughters, Theresa, who was about 18-years-old in the Chomoio Massacre in Mozambique. Theresa had joined the war alongside her siblings who include Tsitsi, who is now Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister, Vitalis, a pilot and Air Zimbabwe chief executive and Mordester. Mbuya Muzenda was at the family home in Mvuma when news of the Chimoio Massacre traversed the region. She was working as a nurse in the mining town. Her other children survived the massacre after going outside their room to fetch drinking water. The pain of her daughter's death and the failure to see where she was buried continued to haunt her up to her death. According to Tongai Muzenda, his mother became hypertensive when she heard the sad news about Theresa's death in Chimoio and had been battling the disease since then. She soldiered on despite her loss and continued to provide freedom fighters with medication and sometimes health services since she was a trained nurse.
Mbuya Muzenda would smuggle drugs into freedom fighters' camps and sometimes attending to those with different ailments despite the disapproval of her bosses. By that time it was not easy for freedom fighters, let alone ordinary black people to get medication because the Smith regime's laws were restrictive. Mbuya Muzenda confronted the Rhodesian colonial government head-on while battling with the administration over underpaid black professionals like her. She fought vigorously to be treated equally with her white counterparts. The late heroine was eventually arrested and detained for supporting her husband in the struggle for independence. The torture, incarceration and ill-treatment did not deter Mbuya Muzenda as she defied the threats of imprisonment and loss of employment. She remained unshaken and supported her nationalist husband and never betrayed the protracted struggle. However, the pain of losing a daughter at a tender age could not easily disappear from her mind.
Each time she recalled her experiences in the liberation war, Mbuya Muzenda's face showed signs of distress, especially when she spoke about her late husband who she always described as a down to earth man.
Born on October 25, 1928 in Matsikidze Village, Masvingo District, Mbuya Muzenda attained Standard Six at Gokomere Mission before training as a nurse at Makumbe Mission Hospital, Chinhamora. She then worked at one of the municipal hospitals in Bulawayo in the 1950s. In 1955 she married the late VP Muzenda who was already a trade unionist demonstrating against the Rhodesian settler government along the likes of Cde Benjamin Burombo. Mbuya Muzenda stood by her husband in the cause to liberate Zimbabwe that started with the founding of the African National Voice Association in Bulawayo in 1947 in which the late VP Muzenda was elected secretary-general.
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