Fletcher Dulini Ncube: Principled and Dependable to the End

1940 to 2014

I first met Fletcher Dulini Ncube in 1999 during the early days of the processes of the formation of the MDC. He was introduced to me by the late Gibson Sibanda at a meeting the three of us had with Paul Themba Nyathi and Esaph Mdlongwa. After he was elected Treasurer General of the MDC at its inaugural Congress we worked very closely together in my then capacity as Secretary General. Over the years we became very close friends notwithstanding that having been born in Hope Fountain on 9 January, 1940, he was some 21 years older than me and that by the time I was born in 1961 he was already very active in the nationalist youth movements. Fletcher Dulini Ncube was, by far, the most principled and dependable person I have ever worked with. For Dulini, as we affectionately called him, principle was everything! When you went to war with him at your side there was never the need to cover your back! You knew that no matter the circumstances, no matter the pain, no matter the cost, he will be there to the very end whatever that end would be! He enjoyed and cherished a good political fight. This is a man who not just  devoted his entire life to political struggle for freedom and liberty and a better life for all but who carried on his person and body all the physical and emotional scars of his life long fights against the colonial racist regimes and the Mugabe dictatorship both of whom persecuted, prcesecuted and incarcerated him for his political beliefs! Not only did he lose his sight arising directly from his incarceration and denial of basic medical rights as a prisoner by the Mugabe regime which detained him on accusations of crimes he never committed and could have never committed but the illnesses which finally took his life were also directly linked to the cruel and often inhuman treatment he received while incarcerated. Those of us who had the honour and privilege of working with this kind  soft spoken giant of a man who never bore any grudges against those who violated his rights remember vividly the images of his defiant look, a look which only Dulini could project, as he set in dirty prison gab during the remand sessions he endured at the Bulawayo magistrate courts! Not once did he ever show any fear! Not once did he ever allow them to beat his spirit!  I remember too his gentle dignity, his amazing strength, his elderly and comforting maturity to his rather young co accused ( except for ubaba uMasera) in the Cain Nkala murder trial as they deprived him of his name and  became accused number so and so. Then and always ubaba uDulini was devoid of any traces of bitterness.

The great irony of  the life of ubaba uDulini lay in that even though he spent the greater part of his young adult life in the trenches of the nationalist struggle for freedom, liberty and peace and in Ian Smith's prisons and detention camps such as Wha Wha and Gonakudzingwa, independence gave him neither freedom nor peace. His entire life thus became a life long struggle for basic human rights! The dignity and humour with which he went about raising young children even after retirement as he was deprived by the Smith regime of the opportunity to found and raise a family during his prime years was something some of us not only admired but also found so inspiring. Lesser mortals would have cursed life and those who created this for him. Others would have shown bitterness and stress in having to be sending young boys to University after retirement but not Dulini. He was a father par excellence.

Dulini was not a man for expediency, he was not a man of political correctness, he was never a coward, he knew no limits to pain. He was at all times, good and bad, a man of unyielding principle! Any man who sought to get him to bend principle for convenience or political correctness or to avoid discomfort or pain or to achieve unprincipled compromise would invariably be at the receiving end of his stern tougue with his favorite expression, " You have a better chance of getting pregnant than me doing that", an expression he used often to put down any attempt to get him to abandon principle. Dulini never retreated from a political fight. My greatest pleasure was being on the same side with him in the many political fights we fought together!!

Dulini was also a great story teller. I remember the long hours we spent together driving to manny many meetings and rallies. He would tell of their exploits and the dare devil missions they carried out as young revolutionaries in the pressure group Umgandane. From those anecdotal stories it was clear that as a young man he had faced enormous risks not just of arrest and torture but death. Dulini had a fine political mind. The one lesson I struggled to learn from his quiet and gentle counsel was the ability to listen and listen and to speak piercingly loudly through silence! In our meetings none listened more than he did! None ever understood with his depth! None could speak two sentences and capture so much! When Dulini spoke not one word was wasted. He always spoke firmly, honestly, without fear or favour. No one had a better political instinct. No one had a better understanding of the fallibility of humanity. No one hated treachery more.

Dulini was a dedicated and committed fighter for freedom and democracy and  this set him apart as a principled revolutionary of immense courage, who spoke his mind no matter the consequences. The opportunists never had one minute of comfort in his presence. I am yet to meet a member of Parliament anything like Dulini. He served as the member of Parliament for Magwegwe- Lobengula with extraordinary honesty! He never sought popularity at the expense of truth and principle. He was a man who, all his life, spoke the truth to power and to all, one who fought for a just and fair society where all would be free and have a better life. Sadly, he has passed on when we are not anywhere near achieving his goals. Ubaba Dulini not just leaves us with a big void in the party which is impossible to fill for no one can ever be like him. He was truly a rare breed. Ever the affectionate husband and father he leaves behind umama umaNkomazana, unakaBheki as we call her. To her and the kids we say, we learnt from ubaba uDulini never to bear false witness and to always speak the truth and hence we will not pretend to know your pain and the depth of your loss! If we said we know how you feel not only would it be a hollow cliche but it would be false. All we know is that you are in pain and the depth of that pain is known only to you. For us all we will say is this: May God grant you the strength and courage to be yourselves and to always honour the man who we kept away from you for long periods but who in return enriched our lives in ways that we could never repay! Thank you for letting us have him as you graciously did. We will always be with you in our prayers. May God grant his soul the freedom and peace he did not achieve in life.

Welshman Ncube,
MDC, President