Zimpapers Logo

Columbus Mabika
Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) has expressed sadness at the death of liberation war fighter and decorated retired senior officer, Colonel Samuel Muzire.

In a statement yesterday, ZNA director public relations Colonel Alphios Makotore, said Col Muzire died at Arundel Hospital in Harare last week after a short illness.

He was 61.

Col Muzire was buried at Glen Forest Cemetery on Sunday.

“The Zimbabwe National Army regrets to announce the death of Colonel (Rtd) Samuel Muzire who passed on at the Arundel Hospital in Harare on 30 July 2021 after a short illness. The late Colonel (Rtd) Muzire, was buried at Glen Forest Cemetery in Harare on 1 August 2021,” reads part of the statement. Known by his nom de guerre “Tasvinura Muchationa” during the liberation struggle, Col Muzire was born on December 31, 1954 in Muzila area of Chipinge, Manicaland Province.

He did his primary education at Bond Tea Estates where he would work extensively in the tea fields during holidays as payment for his school fees. He proceeded for secondary education at Mt Selinda Secondary School through a scholarship. After secondary education, Col (Rtd) Muzire went to Mutare where he worked as a clerk for a commercial transport company. Whilst at the company, the late freedom fighter sought to acquire a profession of his own and applied for apprenticeship training.

The application was turned down on racial grounds of him being black.

This frustrated him such that he left the company for the Forestry Commission Department, which was also sponsoring apprenticeships at some of its institutes in Mutare.

Col (Rtd) Muzire was one of the only two blacks selected for an apprenticeship in motor mechanics.

Together with his colleague, they came face to face with the ugly head of the colonial tertiary education system, which made him more conscious of the politics of his time.

The attainment of independence in Mozambique in 1975 opened a new front for the armed liberation struggle in Zimbabwe as ZANLA forces commenced operations close to the areas that Col (Rtd) Muzire was working in. It was not long before he left the apprenticeship programme in frustration and crossed the border through Mt Selinda via Espunga Beira in Mozambique to join the liberation struggle at the end of 1975. He arrived at Chibawawa where he received his initial military training.

Upon graduation, Col (Rtd) Muzire remained at Chibawawa, teaching lessons on political orientation to the multitudes of refugees who had thronged the refugee camp.

As the war intensified and remarkable training was witnessed at Chimoio, it was seen necessary to move him to Chimoio where he would undertake full time the duty as a teacher for new recruits with his area of specialty being socialist ideology.

This was after a realisation that for the new recruits to be formidable assets in the revolutionary war, there was need to align them with the political ideology which appealed to the grievances of the masses. He became a stalwart of political ideology at Chimoio and this earned him a reputation for the revolutionary orientation of new recruits.

He stayed at Chimoio up to the 1977 bombing, which resulted in some of the surviving cadres being deployed to the front. The late Col (Rtd) Muzire was subsequently deployed to the Chihota area where he operated until the ceasefire in late 1979 when he was moved to Dzapasi Foxtrot Assembly Point in Buhera.

He was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army as a Captain in 1981 and subsequently posted to the Zimbabwe Army Pay and Records Corps where he was pivotal in the setting up of new pay systems to accommodate the enlarged force which had emerged from the integration of the three warring forces.