By A Correspondent- The president Emmerson Mnangagwa has expressed his sadness over the passing on of Zimbabwe’s first Agricultural Minister Denis Norman.

In his condolence statement, the President described Norman as a unifier and said:

A long time leader of the agriculture sector before our independence in 1980, Mr Norman was among a handful of white leaders who offered to serve under a black-majority government at independence, thus validating our policy of national reconciliation following 15 years of our armed struggle against white settler colonialism

This was a bold gesture which ended racial polarisation and laid a lasting basis for racial amity and peace in the country

As a Minister in government, Mr Norman worked hard towards a unified, non racial agricultural sector where farmers related to each other and collaborated on grounds of their calling, and not along the racial divide of colonial times

Denis succumbed to cancer on 20 December 2019. He was the first agricultural minister and was later moved to the transport ministry where he was part of the Beira Corridor initiative.

-StateMedia