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Mr Katsukunya taught the President in Sub A at Murombedzi in 1928.

President Mugabe turned 88 on Tuesday.

Media, Information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu visited Mr Katsukunya at his Chitungwiza home yesterday.

Mr Katsukunya, who is believed to have been born around 1897, though his national identity card indicates his date of birth as November 12, 1907, said President Mugabe was born a leader.

If indeed he is 115 years old, that will make him one of the world’s oldest surviving people.

Mr Katsukunya said he saw President Mugabe again at All Souls Mission in Mutoko at the official opening of the mission’s hospital after independence.

“Long life comes from the one above. It is God who blesses with many years, especially when he has a purpose for someone.”

Mr Katsukunya said he trained as        a teacher at Kutama Mission. He          said he taught President Mugabe together with the late Mr James Chikerema.

He said Mr Chikerema’s father, Mr Joseph Dambaza, was the boarding master at Kutama at that time.

“Most of the teachers quickly got to know about Robert Mugabe because he was short tempered though principled,” Mr Katsukunya said.

Mr Katsukunya said there was need for people to preserve their culture adding that colonialism had resulted in people not respecting their culture.

He said it was important for the youths to respect their culture.

Mr Katsukunya said there was need for the country to have a law that bans alcohol consumption for girls under 18 and boys under 16.

“The whites brought us together which resulted in us losing our culture. Before the whites came, one would tell that one was Ndebele, Zezuru or Matoko by the way they spoke.

“The only people that God created who can drink alcohol and smoke marijuana are those who are settled along the Zambezi, the Tonga because it is their culture,” Mr Katsukunya said.

He said the reason why Zimbabweans waged the war of liberation was because they wanted to reclaim their God-given nation.

Mr Katsukunya said the settlers had superior weapons that could have instilled fear in blacks but they still took the settlers head-on.

Minister Shamu who is also the Zanu-PF national commissar said it was important that the youths respected their culture. He said President Mugabe was a strong proponent of preservation of culture.