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Herald Reporter
Veteran politician and diplomat Cde Kotsho Lloyd Dube, who died on Monday in Bulawayo at the age of 79, was yesterday declared a national hero. President Mugabe announced the conferment of national hero status on Cde Dube, who was also a Zanu-PF Central Committee member during a Central Committee meeting in Harare yesterday.

“The Politburo has accorded the national hero status on one of us who has served us in many many ways in education, Kotsho Dube. We will be burying him on Sunday morning,” President Mugabe said.

In his condolence message on Tuesday, Zanu-PF National Chairman Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo described Cde Dube who died in his sleep at his Khumalo home in Bulawayo as a man of pronounced liberation war credentials, a principled revolutionary and man of the people.

He described Cde Dube, a former National Railways of Zimbabwe board chairperson, as a true revolutionary.

“He was a man of incredible intellectual skills, an accomplished scholar, a man of pronounced liberation war credentials, a deep thinker, principled, focused, a true revolutionary, humble and above all a man of the people — son of the soil,” said Cde Khaya-Moyo.

Former Zimbabwe Ambassador to South Africa, Cde Phelekezela Mphoko, told our Bulawayo Bureau that Zimbabwe had lost a dedicated son who was an active member in the liberation struggle.

“Dr Dube and I met in 1966 and we stayed together at Lusaka House before the party deployed him to the United Kingdom.”

The Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Bulawayo, Cde Eunice Nomthandazo Moyo and NRZ officials were some of the mourners who were at Cde Dube’s house to express their condolences

Professor Callistus Ndlovu, described Cde Dube as a brother and a father to him. He said he lived with Dube for a long time from the time they finished studies at Kutama Mission up to when he visited him in Lusaka. He said he worked with Dube from the liberation struggle until independence.

Zapu president Dumiso Dabengwa said he went to Kutama Mission with Cde Dube before they finished their Matric at Thekwani Secondary School in 1956.

Cde Dube was born on June 25, 1935 in Malindi village, Matobo District. From 1945 to 1951, Dube attended Zamanyoni Primary School up to Standard Six before proceeding to Mzingwane Secondary School for Standard Six.

From 1955 to 1956, he joined the Joint Matriculation Board for Universities of South Africa and Thekwani Secondary School.

Between 1961 and 1963, he was an Articled Law Clerk at Coghlan Welsh and Guest Attorneys.

He worked at the then Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1963 to 1965. From 1965 to 1972, Cde Dube represented PF-Zapu at the United Nations and South America with operations based in New York.

Later his mandate was extended to cover United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Western Europe with offices in London.

He was tasked with promoting Zimbabwe’s struggle, lobbying and securing pro-freedom policy assets from governments, trade unions, students and the general public in countries of assignment.

In 1979, Cde Dube moved to Lusaka, Zambia where he became the director of information and editor-in-chief of PF-Zapu publications.

He was a member of PF-Zapu delegation to the Lancaster House Conference on Decolonisation of Zimbabwe from 1979 to 1980.

At Independence up to 1990, Cde Dube was a member of the National Executive of PF-Zapu and held the positions of secretary for publicity, secretary for education and national director of elections for PF-Zapu in 1985.

Between 1988 and 1990, he was a member of the national integration committee tasked to implement the Unity Accord between Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu. In 1989 working as deputy secretary for administration, Cde Dube saw the ascension of the late First Lady Cde Sally Mugabe to the helm of the Women’s league.

In October 1990, he did a diplomatic course before ambassadorial posting to France.

From 1990 to 1996, Cde Dube was ambassador extra-ordinary and plenipotentiary of Zimbabwe to France, Spain, Portugal, the Vatican and UNESCO.

In 1997 to 2000, he was a member of board of directors for the Zimbabwe Investment Centre and vice chairman of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

From 2002 to 2004 he was appointed Ambassador to Nigeria before moving to Zambia in the same post from 2004 to 2006.

In 2012 to 2013 he was appointed chairman of the NRZ board of directors. Cde Dube is survived by wife, Agatha, three children and three grandchildren.

Mourners are gathered at 35 George Avenue, Khumalo.