THE late Vice-President Dr Simon Vengesai Muzenda who died on September 20 2003 remains one of the country’s most celebrated heroes. Dr Mzee as he was affectionately known, in 1974 while in exile organised young recruits in camps in Zambia and Tanzania.
Besides visiting other camps to co-ordinate guerilla activities, Dr Muzenda was personally involved in the recruitment of the first group of cadres that were sent to Ghana and later to China for military training.
In 1975 he moved to Zambia where he closely worked with President Robert Mugabe.
He later relocated to Mozambique where the two closely cooperated to form a formidable force that prosecuted the armed struggle with utmost rigour.
Dr Muzenda played a crucial role in resolving the untenable situation that emerged following the assassination of the then ZANU Chairman Cde Hebert Chitepo by enemies of the struggle and subsequent arrest of leading comrades by the Zambian authorities.
These events occurred during the Detente period and threatened to derail the liberation struggle.
Dr Muzenda was able to read the machinations of the colonial forces, eventually rescuing the armed struggle and re-launching it to a new level of intensity.
In 1977 he was elected Vice President of ZANU PF at its Congress-in-Exile held in Chimoio.
His election to the powerful post came as no surprise to many cadres because he had distinguished himself as a national leader of outstanding organisational abilities.
On the diplomatic front, Dr Muzenda attended the Geneva Conference in 1976.
The talks were preceded by the formation of a political pact between ZANU and ZAPU, the two main liberation forces confronting white minority government.
Called the Patriotic Front, the pact became the force that consolidated the liberation struggle, effectively bringing the white colonial regime to its knees.
Dr Muzenda also attended the Anglo-American proposal talks in Malta and Dar-es-Salaam.
During the same period, he suffered a personal tragedy when he lost a child during the November 23 1977 Chimoio attack where innocent and defenceless Zimbabweans were massacred by the murderous Rhodesian soldiers in an operation code-named Dingo.
With the struggle intensifying and the Patriotic Front on the verge of overrunning the regime, the Lancaster House talks were convened in 1979 and once again Dr Muzenda played his part.
During the exasperating Lancaster House negotiations, Dr Muzenda hit out at the British saying:
“The British are again trying to assist the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) rebels by robbing the freedom fighters of their gains at the conference table.
“They want to appear as if the current negotiations have not been brought about by the people’s war.”
When President Mugabe was elected the First Prime Minister of the new independent Zimbabwe in 1980, Dr Muzenda became the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister.
Dr Mzee would later rise to become one of Zimbabwe’s Vice-President in 1987 alongside the late Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo.