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Political Writer
THE death of Cde Sabina Mugabe robbed Zimbabwe of a veteran nationalist and woman activist of excelling abilities. Cde Sabina, sister to President Mugabe, passed on at the Avenues Clinic in Harare on Thursday, July 29, 2010, after suffering successive strokes in 1985 and 2005 which damaged her brain, leaving her ailing.

Sadly she would not recover as her condition deteriorated progressively.

She was 80. The late Sabina who was widowed in 1980, following the death of her husband, Johannes Zhuwawo, is survived by four children.

Popularly known as “Tete”, Cde Sabina was born on October 14, 1929, at Kutama Village in the Zvimba communal area.

She was the eldest daughter and fifth child in a family of six.

With the father’s second marriage, the family grew to nine children: three girls and six boys. Her parents were Bona and Gabriel Mugabe. Her other siblings include Michael, Raphael, Donato, David and Albert, all late, and Robert (the President), Bridget and Regina who survive her.

Cde Sabina attended Kutama Mission in Zvimba. She was a day student and completed her primary education in 1946. She trained as a teacher at Empandeni Teachers’ Training College in Bulawayo from 1947.

After her training, she taught at Benhura and Ngezi schools in Mhondoro in the 1950s, before transferring to Mhandu, a school in her home area. In the 1960s, she assisted in the formation of the Highfield Community School, and in the launch of other projects that benefited society.

In 1975, Tete Sabina obtained her Ordinary Level Certificate after which she went abroad to advance her education. She first went to London where she studied Home Economics at Battersea College. Still in London, she read for another course in Nutrition at Richmond College.

By the time she left England, Tete Sabina had obtained a certificate in Policy Formulation and Implementation and another Certificate in Home Economics. In 1977, she relocated to Canada where she pursued Development Studies at Coardy International Institute in Nova Scotia. She also obtained a Diploma in Social Development at Saint Francis Xavier College, and later another Diploma in Dressmaking, Fashion and Design at the Paris Academy of Fashion. On her return from the diaspora, Cde Sabina taught and lectured at Silveira House, a Roman Catholic centre in Chishawasha which she served for 20 years. For 12 years, she was the Head of Applied Nutrition and Development Department at the centre. She contributed greatly in community development as she trained women in the area in survival skills.

With her father late, her eldest brother either in prison or in exile leading the armed struggle, the burden of raising the expanded Mugabe family fell on her and the ageing Ambuya Bona. It is this great challenge which cultivated in her the spirit of self-reliance and strong family values.

She made different wares, all the time moving far and wide in search of markets for them. That way, the family income was augmented and children were able to go to school. Her close contact with the family ensured all who grew under her were steeped in family values.

It is a lasting legacy in the family. Cde Sabina was one of the few courageous women who dared join the political fray quite early. Her political foundation was laid far back in 1960 when she joined nationalist politics as a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP).

At great personal risk, she mobilised people of her home area, Zvimba, into protesting against the settler colonialists. Indeed Zvimba district became a hot-bed of nationalist activism.

Soon, many nationalists would be arrested en masse following violent protests in various parts of the country. Tete Sabina assisted detained nationalists and freedom fighters with food and clothing procured from modest proceeds from her informal enterprise.

Together with cadres like Amai Victoria Chitepo and the late Ruth Chinamano, she played communication conduit between incarcerated nationalists in prison and Zanu’s external wing led by the late Chairman Cde Herbert Chitepo, and tasked to prosecute the armed struggle. It was a very delicate affair full of risks.

To avoid detection, Cde Sabina would carry vital letters all the way to the small town of Kadoma for posting. There, the risk of detection would be minimal. Through that link, coordination between the leadership inside Rhodesian jails and those leading the struggle externally, was achieved.

She became the organising secretary of NDP in her home area and was instrumental in mobilising youths who sabotaged economic targets, including agricultural equipment at Darwendale.

NDP was banned in 1961 and many young men and women left the country to train as freedom fighters.

Cde Sabina became a member of the successor Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) which was also later banned.

In August 1963, she became instrumental in the formation of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu). She was among the pioneering women in Zanu at its infancy.

The late Cde Sabina faced hard times during the period of nationalist divisions which triggered bloody political skirmishes in townships, including Highfield, where she stayed.

At one time, a group of about 200 youths from Highfield Community School were mobilised to stone her home.

As unrest escalated and the risk of arrest grew, she went into hiding at Ranche House College. Cde Sabina would later study bookkeeping at the college.

When her brother Robert Gabriel Mugabe was arrested for political activism, the Salisbury City Council, acting on instructions from the Smith regime, repossessed their Highfield house.

She fought hard and succeeded in recovering it. She went to the extent of taking her three children to the council offices, threatening to leave them there if she did not get her house back. That way, she turned tables against the racist authorities.

The same house later became a safe haven for nationalists who would have been released from detention, such as Cdes Nkala, Malianga, Tekere and Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole who had also lost their houses during the crackdown by the Council. She assisted in the secret recruitment of freedom fighters using Silveira House as both base and cover.

A good number of cadres came from Mabvuku where Cde Joseph Chakaipa led the recruitment drive. As the political tension was building up in 1975, Cde Sabina left the country for the United Kingdom, using a pseudonym.

After the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979, Cde Sabina was actively involved in campaigning for Zanu-PF and in organising women in her rural province of Mashonaland West. In 1984, she was elected Secretary for Women’s Affairs in her province.

When Zanu-PF’s Women’s League was launched, she became Secretary for National Production. She was the brains behind Matunu Training Centre, a women’s co-operative that trained the management of self-help projects in Manicaland. This urge to work with communities had started way back in the 1970s when Tete Sabina launched a dressmaking project in Chegutu. Through it and many such programmes, she was able to dispense vital skills to many women who otherwise faced dim prospects in life.

She served as a Member of Parliament for Makonde East in 1985, for Zvimba in 1990 and Zvimba South in 2000.

As a legislator, she was a member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines, Environment and Tourism. She also served on the Public Accounts Committee. Because of her popularity, gained from developmental projects she had initiated in her constituency, she was repeatedly re-elected into parliament: in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005.

During her term of office as an MP, Tete Sabina advocated the establishment of centres for orphans as part of efforts to curb problems associated with child abuse. She also fought for the emancipation of women when she motivated men to eradicate social beliefs that bound women to second class citizenship status.

To demonstrate her dedication to the empowerment of women, she led a delegation of rural women that attended the Beijing World Women’s Conference which was held in China in 1993.

She became the first and only mother from Southern Africa to sit in Parliament with her sons: Cdes Leo Mugabe as MP for Makonde, and Cde Patrick Zhuwawo as MP for Manyame, all representing Zanu-PF.

Cde Sabina encouraged the Government to improve educational opportunities for children of farm-workers in the commercial farming areas. Tete Sabina’s concept of “Child Welfare” which she launched during her early days at Silveira House, would be adopted nationwide and become a vital part of the Ministry of Health.

Cde Sabina was renowned for urging the government to be sensitive to the needs of the rural communities which carried the bulk of the country’s population. She also raised her voice in urging government to embark on projects that create employment for local people through agricultural activities and fisheries.

A serious farmer in her own right, Tete Sabina spearheaded the sourcing of funds for the acquisition of farms for resettlement purposes. She also launched a tillage scheme for the disadvantaged and elderly members of Zvimba and Chirau communities, occasionally donating inputs.

Her ambitions to develop her constituency were later frustrated by ill health, a condition that forbade her from offering herself for re-election in the 2008 harmonised elections. She left behind a rich legacy of community activism and women empowerment.

Adapted from: A Guide to the Heroes Acre