Bulawayo businessman, evangelist dies

ONE of Bulawayo's pioneering black entrepreneurs and evangelist December Norman Sibanda has died. Evangelist Sibanda (76) was laid to rest at Lady Stanley Cemetery in the city on Friday. He was born in the Balule area near Solusi Mission in 1940. His eldest child, Mr Thembinkosi Sibanda described his late father as an ardent preacher and religious man up to the time of his death.

The late evangelist, a teacher by profession is renowned for being one of the biggest scotch cart manufacturers in Bulawayo since the 1970s to 2005 with numerous of his two-wheeled animal drawn freight carriers marketed throughout the Matabeleland region. He started his teaching profession at Solusi Mission in 1965 as a Wood Work teacher.

He proceeded with his teaching career at Gwanda High in 1976 to 1981 where he taught both Wood Work and Metal Work combining teaching and his scotch cart manufacturing business. He then moved to Bulawayo Adventist Secondary School from 1981 where he taught until his retirement in 2007. Sibanda also ventured into the transport business in 1997 and continued with it until his death. He owned a fleet of commuter omnibus operating under the trade name, Friends Union which plied local and Bulawayo to Victoria Falls routes.

He is also attributed for being involved in a number of Seventh Day Adventist infrastructural development projects in the city as well as manufacturing coffins for the less privileged for free. Evangelist Sibanda is survived by a wife Zilipa, five children, 16 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.