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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) high-ranking cadre Cde Masilo Muleya alias Elias Ndau (71), who died in a road accident last Saturday along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo Road, will be buried at his rural home in Mtetengwe Village today.

Cde Muleya was declared a liberation war hero and is credited with training a number of high-ranking Zipra cadres.
He died when his motorcycle was hit by a speeding bus which tried to overtake him 40km along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo Road.

The decorated war veteran succumbed to injuries sustained during the accident upon admission at Beitbridge District Hospital and his body was taken to a local funeral parlour.

Zanu-PF’s Beitbridge East constituency candidate, Cde Albert Nguluvhe, said the nation had lost a great leader.
“He trained a lot of senior Zipra leaders including myself during his days as the commissar at CGT1 camp, where the current commander of Defence Forces General Philip Valerio Sibanda was the (camp) commander,” he said.

“My heart is heavy, we have lost a great man who was a good commissar and a member of the Zipra High Command during the war of liberation.

“This is a veteran nationalist whom we will always miss for his good guidance and selfless leadership. As a commissar, he was alive to the Zanu-PF party’s ideology”.

He said a number of living and late Zipra senior members were trained by Cde Muleya, who would always encourage them to soldier on the road to Zimbabwe’s independence.

Cde Muleya was born and raised in Mtetengwe Village under Headman Mabidi.
He did his primary and secondary education in Beitbridge district before joining the liberation struggle in 1973.

Cde Muleya was trained at Morogoro, Tanzania, on a crash course and later joined the late Asaf and Stanley Gagisa and General Sibanda,who was then leader of the group of five Zipra cadres who were sent for commando training between 1974 and 1975 in Egypt and Lebanon.

During that time he also fought at the front while attached to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Between 1976 and 1977 he went back to CGT1 camp in Zambia where he trained a number of Zipra fighters as a political commissar.

He was injured during the war of liberation and post-independence he was certified 30 percent disabled due to poor health.
At the time of his death, Cde Muleya was an executive member of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.
He is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.