Mugabe meets his 119 year old teacher

THE name Oscar Munyoro might not ring a bell in the minds of many, but the 119-year old man yesterday stole the show at Kutama Mission when he met President Mugabe, one of his students at Murombedzi School in 1931.

The two met on the sidelines of Kutama Mission Centenary Celebrations.

Proceedings came to a standstill as President Mugabe took time to chat with his former teacher, reliving memories of the good old days.

Perched in his wheelchair and neatly dressed in a black striped suit, Mr Munyoro could hardly recognise the President.

"Ko VaMugabe vacho ndevapi?" he asked while holding the President's hand.

President Mugabe cheerfully responded: "VaMugabe ndivo vano vamuri kutaura navo."

With a wide smile on his face, Mr Munyoro could not hide his joy as he thanked God for giving him a long life to see one of his students excelling to become the Head of State and Government.

"Mwari vane simba," Mr Munyoro said. "Kwave kungoita kunge story kuti VaMugabe ndakavafundisa. Kusaona kani, maziso haachanyatsooni. Kungoti nguva ndiyo yaita shoma."

Mr Munyoro described President Mugabe and the late James Chikerema as brilliant students.

"He was very intelligent together with (James) Chikerema," he said. "He was committed to his studies and it was clear from the beginning that he was destined for greater things in life."

From Murombedzi School, President Mugabe enrolled at Kutama Mission, which has to date produced several icons and luminaries in Zimbabwe.

Most of the students who passed through Kutama Mission are now leaders in various disciplines.

One of the students, Walter Chidhakwa, who is now the Mines and Mining Development Minister said Kutama Mission was the foundation of his intellectual ex- ploits.

"The school did not only give us intellectual proficiency, but discipline because things were done according to certain standards," he said. "The educational regime that we went through is now making sense to me because it moulded our characters."

Chidhakwa said some of the attributes of Kutama Mission were its ability to nurture students with analytical skills.

Another former student and past president of the Kutama Old Boys' Association (KOBA), Dakarayi Mapuranga, said he was happy to be associated with an institution that had done the country proud by producing a Head of State and Government.

"Kutama is known for its academic prowess, but we are now taking sporting activities seriously and we have a group of basketball students that we are sending to Europe as KOBA," he said.

Mapuranga, who is eyeing Headlands constituency whose by-election to replace the expelled Mr Didymus Mutasa is set for June 5, said he was inspired to venture into politics by his life at Kutama.