RUEBEN ZEMURA

        By Tapfuma Machakaire

 

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city and once the country’s industrial hub, is a cosmopolitan urban settlement that owes its reputation to the convergence of visionaries from different parts of the country.

With time, some of the dreamers who arrived in the city in the 1950’s and 1960’s established themselves as leaders in various spheres, from business, to sport and even politics. The rich cultural and tribal diversity in Bulawayo has seen the city producing outstanding performers in various fields.

However, an unfortunate development that plagued the city, negating the advantages of diversity was the emergence of groups that sought to divide the people along tribal and regional lines.

Though he sometimes sounded controversial, business mogul, the late Rueben Zemura who came to Bulawayo around 1963 from Murehwa District, Mashonaland East Province is remembered for leading a crusade against regionalism and tribalism.

Zemura who was the managing director of Shirichena group of companies with business interests in Bulawayo, Gokwe, Harare and Murehwa, was also involved in administration of football. He together with nationalists that include Dr Oliver Munyaradzi (late) Dr Herbert Ushewokunze (late) and others were the forces behind Mashonaland United FC, now Zimbabwe Saints.

In the early seventies there were sentiments that names of the two leading teams in Bulawayo Matabeleland Highlanders and Mashonaland United were dividing the African people in the townships. Zemura argued that there was nothing tribal in the name of his team. He said until government changed names of provinces of Mashonaland Central, East and West and Manicaland, there was nothing wrong with anybody adopting similar names.

Zemura later agreed with nationalists Joshua Nkomo, Herbert Ushewokunze and others to have the names changed which saw the two teams being renamed Highlanders FC and Zimbabwe Saints FC. Zemura was chairman of Zimbabwe Saints from 1972 to 1975.

Nkomo who followed the works of Zemura in Bulawayo was among the hundreds who descended on Zemura village, Mukarakate area of Murehwa for the burial of Rueben Zemura in 1993. In his eulogy Nkomo described Zemura as, “a man who lived a selfless life and hated regionalism and tribalism. This is demonstrated by the way he lived and worked in Bulawayo, a Ndebele dominated city.” Nkomo went on to praise Zemura for “a job well done” adding that his good deeds would be felt by all who knew him and should be emulated by all. This was despite that in the 1985 general elections, Zemura stood against Nkomo in Magwegwe Constituency but was no match to Father Zimbabwe. The Sunday Mail carried a colorful story in which they described Nkomo visit to Mukarakate for Zemura’s burial under the headline A Dance with Father Zimbabwe in Mukarakate.

Zemura was active in politics and held several positions at provincial level in the ruling ZANU PF party. In 1984 Zemura and four other members of the provincial executive were suspended from their posts. Commenting on the suspension, Zemura said “in order to bring peace and tranquility to the region Ndebele people must be involved in ZANU PF.”

Zemura had close links with the top brass in the party who included the late Maurice Nyagumbo and the late Enos Nkala and could have easily used their influence to retain his post. The suspension of the four came when there was a tussle for positions in the ruling party along tribal lines which later saw then Bulawayo provincial chairperson Freddy Waniwa being sidelined.

In 1992 Zemura shocked party stalwarts when he issued a statement that was at variance with the party position when he said economic hardships that the nation was facing were not caused by the drought, but by the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) and mismanagement of the economy. ESAP, the neo-liberal capitalist ideology was introduced on the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) as a measure towards speedy economic development.

At the height of the 1992 economic challenges, Zemura who was regional president of the Indigenous Business Development Community IBDC, marshalled his members to donate milk to Mpilo Hospital. The hospital had been failing to provide milk to patients for some time, following a decision by the Dairy Marketing Board to stop supplying their products to government institutions that were in arrears. Cash to purchase milk for a month for the hospital was raised from ten companies, all members of the IBDC.

During that period Zemura said the Bulawayo IBDC chapter had declared “a war against the monopolists’ stronghold over the economy, for the good of the indigenous businessmen.” He called for the adoption of anti-trust laws, establishment of a monopoly and mergers commission as well as office of fair trading. He argued that “although multinationals have a role to play in the economy, IBDC had a paramount objective to look at a situation where Zimbabweans control their own destiny.”

Zemura was an advocate of youth empowerment. He served as Matabeleland regional president of the Indigenous Business Development Centre IBDC. He often spoke of his vision of transferring economic power from the white settlers to indigenous young black entrepreneurs.

In 1989 he mooted the idea of establishing milling companies for youths at several growth points in the country. He said then, “We shall install Grinding Mills in Kezi, Nkayi, Murehwa, Plumtree, Jotsholo, Binga, Gokwe, Shurugwi, Mberengwa, Gutu, Chivi, Chirumanzi, Wedza, Chiweshe, Rusape, and Chipinge.” His company would ensure that youths from the various districts were trained to operate and run the milling companies. He subsequently established a rural millers association in 1992 which he supported with seed money to purchase equipment.

In his quest to assist the under privileged, Zemura was patron of the Zimbabwe unemployment self-reliant organization. He took it upon himself to fight for the rights of disabled employees of the Jairos Jiri association who had been evicted from the Nguboyenja centre.

Zemura died on August 3, 1993 after attending the funeral of Eddison Shirihuru former Deputy Director External Affairs with the Central Intelligence organization. Shirihuru was accused of involvement in the disappearance of Rashiwe Guzha in the early 1980’s. Zemura was declared a liberation war hero.