Paul Nyathi|Social media has reacted to an old picture of mobile phone giant service provider Econet Wireless founder, Strive Masiyiwa with the late father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo.

Seemingly, familiar faces are appearing in the picture. Let us know who you know. Check the picture below:

This is what Strive Masiyiwa recently said about his relationship with Joshua Nkomo, commenting on his Facebook thread.

The late Dr Joshua Nkomo loved me like a dear son. In the last years of his life he would just call for me, like a priest, and I would sit there quietly as he reminisced about his life.

Sometimes I read him tracks from a little Bible I carried in my pocket. I keep a picture of him, in which I’m praying for him.

At times I would go into his bedroom and listen to him as he lay there.

Often times he would fall asleep whilst talking and I would just sit there for however long and wait for him to wake up again. I never left even to go and come back.

He once told me that there were so many things in the Unity Accord [that he signed to end the conflict] that he did not like. He gave me intimate details of his anguish that often led me to tears.

“So why did you sign, baba?” I asked quietly.

“I looked at the suffering of the people. You must always try to do something if you see your people suffering.”

Again he said to me:
“Don’t allow anger or bitterness to cloud your judgment. See I’m working with Mugabe.”

Those words rung in my ears when I rushed to help end Cholera, not once but twice. It is what propelled me to rush to join the campaign to end the Ebola pandemic in West Africa. It propels me when I think of little Leah Sharibu’s plight in the hands of Boko Haram.

As the cycle of his life ebbed to its end, I would often go to the hospital to see him with his wife, known affectionately as “Mafuyana”.

“When he sees your face, he lights up despite the pain,” she told me once. “I can’t understand his love for you.”

We did not come from the same tribe, nor were we related. He taught me everything about love of nation, and the African continent.

And when he died, she made a special request to President Mugabe, which he granted despite the latter’s deep animosity towards me at the time.

I did something at the Heroes Acre to commemorate our special relationship.
Later I set up a scholarship in his memory, that has educated the most brilliant young people from Zimbabwe, and other nations since his death.

Joshua Nkomo is the greatest man I ever had the honor and privilege to know personally. If I can be just 10% to the mentor to you, that he was to me, then my life will be fulfilled considerably.

“I looked at the suffering of the people. You must always try to do something if you see your people suffering.”