By A Correspondent- MDC founder member and former MP for Mpopoma/Pelandaba, Jefret Bafana Khumalo, died Wednesday last week at his Riverside home in Bulawayo following a short illness.

He was 83.

The MDC Alliance Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Swithern Chirowodza confirmed Khumalo’s death in an interview.

He said:

I confirm the death of one of our longest-serving elders in the party, Jefret Khumalo. His death was just sudden. As a party, we would like to convey our condolences to his family. If all things were equal, Khumalo was supposed to be declared a national hero because he fought for the liberation of this country.

The late Khumalo will be buried Tuesday in Bulawayo.

He worked in the furniture-making industry where he was involved in trade unionism before joining politics.

During the liberation war, Khumalo and other youths used to supply freedom fighters with clothes and shoes which led to his imprisonment in 1973.

He was detained at Whawha Detention Camp in Gweru with his friends, Norma Zikhali, Sidney Malunga, and others. On his release from prison, Khumalo went to England to join his wife.

When he returned to Zimbabwe in 1981, he joined ZAPU and worked closely with the late Vice President John Nkomo, and Malunga.

Khumalo worked as a district education officer for Tsholotsho during the 1980s before joining the government as a labour officer at Mhlahlandlela government offices in Bulawayo.

He later left the government and joined Radar Metal as a labour officer. He joined the MDC when it was formed in 1999. In 2000, he was elected the party’s Mpopoma/Pelandaba constituency MP.