Obert Chifamba Manicaland Bureau
ZIMBABWE College of Forestry’s first black principal after independence, Mr Johnson Mhungu, has died. He was 65. Mr Mhungu succumbed to cancer in the early hours of Sunday morning at Murambi Gardens Hospital in Mutare. He is survived by his wife Mrs Dorcas Mhungu (nee Masunda) and two children. He will be laid to rest in the Chesa small-scale commercial farming area of Mt Darwin tomorrow.

Mr Mhungu was born on April 28, 1952 in Chivi District of Masvingo, where he did part of his primary education at Bella Primary School before moving to Chesa, where he attended Jawara Primary School. He returned to Chivi for his secondary education before going to Cyprus, where studied for a Diploma in Forestry, after which he went to Makerere University in Uganda for further studies in forestry. Timber Producers Federation chief executive Mr Darlington Duwa, yesterday chronicled Mr Mhungu’s life, saying he was a man whose contribution to the timber and forestry industries was difficult to match.

“All the foresters and managers that you see in the industry today were his students at some point. He mentored most of them. He joined the Forestry Commission in the early 80s, where he worked as a monitoring and evaluation officer within the rural aforestation project before rising to provincial forestry manager for Mashonaland East,” said Mr Duwa.

“He was to join the Zimbabwe College of Forestry in the early 90s as the acting principal, a post he held for approximately two years before moving on to join Border Timbers, where he was appointed estate manager at Imbeza Estate. He left again to join Forestry Commission as a plantation development manager in Mutare,” narrated Mr Duwa.

Mr Mhungu retired from that posting later to join PG (Manica Boards and Doors) before moving again to join Allied Timbers. His final destination was Timber Producers Federation, where he was the chief executive for at least three years before retiring in 2016. Mrs Mhungu told The Herald that her husband had retired on medical grounds in 2016 after he had been diagnosed with cancer in September the same year.

“Since then, he had been battling the disease and had been in and out of hospital on several occasions. He eventually became bed-ridden but still showed signs of not giving up. He was a fighter. When he was diagnosed with cancer, it (cancer) was already at an advanced stage, so it was evidently very painful for him,” she said.

“Cancer has a very debilitating pain, but Johnson showed signs of not giving up. I have lost a very loving and caring husband, who was very generous to all people of the Mhungu family and beyond. He taught us to love and give,” said Mrs Mhungu. Her sentiments were echoed by Mrs Martha Beta, sister to Mr Mhungu’s father, who added that the late Mr Mhungu had left a void that no one would ever fill. He was like a son to me. I don’t even know if I will get someone to fill the gap he left. The entire family has lost a unifier,” she said.

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