I am deeply saddened by the passing on of Ambassador Comrade Victor Matemadanda, a stalwart of the Chimurenga - Umvukelo, National Liberation War from the expatriate community of Zimbabwean exiles based in Zambia.
This patriotic exile community played a crucial role of supporting the fledgling ZANLA and ZPRA Guerrilla armies at the incipient stage of the armed struggle.
Training principally in Tanzania, and deploying from Zambia the two intrepid guerrilla armies sought to implant a permanent foothold on the soil of Zimbabwe as they militarily confronted the army of Rhodesia, the settller racist colonial outpost of the increasingly expanding British Empire.
This exile community was a ready reservoir of recruits as they concurrently organized material support to the patriottic cause of the People's War inside Rhodesia.
In 1975, President Samora Machel of FRELIMO took the painful yet fateful decision to host the joint ZIPA armies of ZANLA and ZPRA in His newly independent Mozambique.
He closed the common border, resumed the armed struggle and opened the guerrilla training camps of Chimoio and Tembwe.
Tembwe is in the far northwest of Mozambique between Malawi and Zambia. It made strategic sense to be relatively far from the military reach of the marauding aggression of the military of Rhodesia.
But Tembwe was far removed from ready access logistics to food and supplies in a country already ranked the poorest in the world.
In the quest to train and quickly be deployed to the front, the recruits who had absconded from studies at the University of Rhodesia opted to train at Tembwe.
I was in the pioneer Chitungwiza company that started maiden training at Tembwe. Extreme hunger stalked us as we wasted during the training. By the time we finished I lapsed into a coma from starvation.
National hero Duri got wind of my creeping demise. He saved me by feeding me with roasted beans harvested from wild acacia trees.
Word of the hunger plight stalking Tembwe reached the exile community in Zambia.
Comrade Matemadanda together with late Comrade Kombayi the Post indeoendence Mayor of Gweru organized a hunger rescue convoy of food trucks from Zambia to Tembwe.
I still vividly remembed that life saving convoy to this day five decades later.
Comrade Matemadanda would go on to decisively serve and save newly independent Zimbabwe in yet another endeavour.
The dying years of the Second Republic witnessed a senile if ailing Mugabe lapsing into dynastic inclination. His youthful spouse and her cohorts saw an opportunity for a palace coup against the State so as to upend the permanent Zimbabwe Revolution.
Cde Matemadanda as the Secretary of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association- ZNLWA was in my leadership team with me as Chairman.
We flatly refused to let the patriotic Party slide into a family dynasty.
Cde Matemadanda was as bold courageous, daring as he was outspoken in challenging Mugabe's perfidious assault of the Permanent Zimbabwe Revolution.
He would be imprisoned for his acts of open defiance to the wayward aging Mugabe.
His exploits were not im vain. By November 2017, the people of Zimbabwe would demonstrate in open revolt.
The Zimbabwe army readily joined the populace as the mass protest and an ongoing parliamentary impeachment forced beleaguered Mugabe out of power.
The permanent Zimbabwe Revolution got a life saver to pursue the quest for prosperity many youths of the Soweto-76, Samora Machel generation had perished for.
He would go on to serve as an elected deputy of the Parliament of the Second Republic.
His abiding loyalty saw H.E President E D Mnangagwa appoint him as top diplomat to Mozambique, sister and neighbour country.
Beyond usual and standard work, he was engged in reviving and rekindling the memory of the sacrifices of the armed stuggle frequently visiting Chimoio and Nyadzonia massacre sites.
Cde Ambassador loved his Zimbabwe and the epic story of its glorious military resurgence, its epic of sacrifice and the integrity of its republican revolutionary ethos.
Fare thee well, son of the soil.
Cde. Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa