UPDATED: Declare Chinx National Hero- ZIMA Cde Chinx
Cde Chinx

Cde Chinx

Takunda Maodza Assistant News Editor
VETERAN musician Cde Dickson Chingaira has died.

He was 61.

Popularly known as Cde Chinx, the iconic musician passed on at West end Hospital in Harare at 10pm yesterday.

His son Deeds confirmed Cde Chinx’s death in an interview with The Herald this morning.

“He passed on at West End Hospital at 10PM yesterday,” said Deeds.

The Zimbabwe Music Awards chairman Mr Joseph Nyadzayo immediately pleaded with the national leadership to confer national hero status on Cde Chinx.

Mr Nyadzayo donated a house to Cde Chinx a month and half ago.

“This one and half month he has lived in the house that we built for him, I think it is extra time given to us by God. Cancer is a killer but we were just granted time for him to sample the token (house) we had given him. In my view this is a man who has done the best possible for his country using his mouth as a tool. We are very grateful as ZIMA. We are asking the national leadership, the party (Zanu-PF) and Government to declare him a national hero. In my view this is a people’s choice. This is the voice of the povo,” said Mr Nyadzayo.

Cde Chinx had battled blood cancer for some time and was in and out of hospital.

He also had tried to seek help from prophets, apostolic faith churches and traditional healers without success.

Early this year, he released an album featuring Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Civic Education despite his ill-health.

The iconic revolutionary musician had two wives with 10 children between them.

Cde Chinx joined the liberation struggle in Mozambique in 1975 where he led the Zanla Choir.

Music played a crucial role in the fight against the brutal Rhodesian regime led by Ian Douglas Smith.

It inspired guerillas and the masses into successfully waging a war against the Rhodesians.

Through music, Cde Chinx protested the brutality of the Rhodesian regime while motivating the oppressed blacks to take arms and fight the injustice.

Even after independence, Cde Chinx actively participated in the decolonisation of Zimbabwe during the Third Chimurenga when Government embarked on the land reform programme.

Again, Cde Chinx musically became the face of the decolonization process and churned a number of songs encouraging landless Zimbabweans into embracing the land reform exercise as it was one of the major reasons the liberation struggle was waged.

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