Condolence Message by His Excellency the President, Dr E.D. Mnangagwa, following the passing on of Cde Joshua Teke Malinga, Harare, 10th September, 2023.

I learnt with a deep sense of grief and sadness of the passing on last Friday of Cde Joshua Teke Malinga, following a brave fight against a malignant form of prostrate cancer.

A Nationalist stalwart and vocal proponent of disability rights, the late Cde Malinga was a leading voice both in the ruling Party, Zanu PF, and in Government on disability issues, including ensuring, in his capacity as my special advisor, that Government policy was alive and sensitive to interests of disabled persons across gender, age, class or colour. My decision to appoint him to advise me on this all-important yet often easily overlooked area was informed by his unequivocal and fervent interest in protecting and defending the rights of disabled persons.

A victim of polio at a tender age of 2, the late Cde Malinga’s illustrious life and career bore testimony to the fact that circumstances of disability need not diminish one’s ability and life chances.

For him, disability became a spur to an exceptional life and career, including courageously participating and sharing in the risks of nationalist politics, and in the struggle for our Independence. An accounting graduate, Cde Malinga rose through the ranks of the country’s nationalist politics until he was elevated to the Central Committee and, later to the Politburo of the ruling Party, Zanu PF which he served with utmost loyalty, even as his health gradually failed and deserted him. He never missed any Party functions or meetings.

A two-time Executive Mayor of our second capital, Bulawayo, the late Cde Malinga, personified diligence and integrity in civil and municipal matters, virtues woefully scarce nowadays. His wise leadership and profound counsel will thus be sorely missed at different echelons of our Party, our Government and our Nation.

May I, on behalf of our Nation, the ruling Zanu PF Party, Government, my Family and on my behalf, express my deepest, heartfelt condolences to the Malinga Family on this their saddest loss. May they derive solace from the knowledge that the Nation in whose defence and interest Cde Malinga was put under illegal sanctions, today joins them in mourning his sad, untimely demise, and in according him deserved honours and a befitting farewell.

In recognition of his distinguished role in the struggle for our Independence, in the development of our Nation since its inception, and in championing the cause of special interest groups in public policy and national development, the ruling Zanu PF Party has unanimously decided to accord Cde Malinga National Hero Status.

May his dear soul rest in eternal peace.

E.D. Mnangagwa
PRESIDENT