Lt General Lookout Masuku's last 3 days and his last request

A very interesting thing happened on Lookout Masuku's last few days. Judith Todd went to see him and found him in a bad condition. He made one request before he died.

He passionately wanted a water melon. That's all he asked for...

On Thursday, April 3rd 1984 at around 5pm Lookout had asked Sir Garfield Todd to urgently call Judith Todd to the hospital before 6pm. When she arrived, Joshua Nkomo, Vote Moyo and a big crowd were at the hospital with Lookout Masuku. She was relieved and rather surprised as she had thought when she arrived, she would find that Lookout had passed on but Joshua Nkomo insisted all was well and she could have misinterpreted as to why she had to get there by 6. He said that Lookout thought that she was bringing him the watermelon (as she had previously agreed to find him one) and he couldn't wait for it until 6pm. Lookout was still in hospital critically ill, he was shivering in his sleep and his condition was severely deteriorating.

Joshua Nkomo asked her to try and find some watermelon as soon as possible. Gift Masuku, ( Lookout Masuku's wife) motioned Judith over to ward C8 at Parirenyatwa hospital and her and Vote Moyo agreed that they needed to find a water melon as soon as possible. The only problem with Lookout's request was there was no watermelons in Harare and nobody could find them as they were not in season at that time. Joshua Nkomo said he had heard there could be watermelon's in Bulawayo and he was going there and would have it flown in the next morning by plane. It was agreed that Judith Todd will search in Harare and Joshua Nkomo will make efforts in Bulawayo.

Gift Masuku asked Judith to also ring Zodwa Dabengwa ( Dumiso Dabengwa's wife ) when she got home to see if Zodwa could get any in Bulawayo and Judith sped off to the Holiday Inn and tried in many other places in Harare searching for the watermelon to no avail.

When Judith Todd got back, the nurses allowed Gift and Judith to use the phone and Gift rang colonel Tshinga Dube to see what he could do and he said he had someone driving around in his car all over Harare looking for a water melon. Joshua Nkomo and others were searching all over Bulawayo for watermelon all night. The first to find watermelon was Colonel Tshinga Dube. He had managed to find one in Harare. Colonel Tshinga Dube apparently drove to Meikles hotel that afternoon and motioned a waiter outside. He gave the waiter $50 and said he would be waiting in the lounge until the waiter found one. When he walked into Lookout's room at about 7-8 in the evening with the piece of watermelon Lookout's face lit up.  Zodwa Dabengwa, had also found a small piece of water melon in Bulawayo, and asked to go and collect it from the airport the next morning, on Friday the 4th. The watermelon that had been flown in from Bulawayo was beautiful and when Judith told Lookout it was from Zodwa Dabengwa, he managed to say "Zodwa".

On April 4th, Joshua Nkomo and Vote Moyo and other ZAPU leaders who had been released were in Harare discussing the unity between ZAPU and ZANU. It was the third meeting going on. Lookout knew he was dying. On that Friday, Lookout's health had deteriorated and he was now on an oxygen mask. Lookout wasn't able to speak anymore. His father managed to travel from rural Matebeleland to Harare and Lookout made one enormous last effort to regain consciousness and gazed at his father once more. He died on Saturday the next day, at 2pm on the 5th of April.

Lt General Lookout Masuku was buried at the revered Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo on Saturday 12th April 1986 after ZANU denied him heroe . Tens of thousands of people converged to pay their last respects, and the main orator of the day was ofcourse, Dr Joshua Nkomo who gave one of the greatest speeches of his life time. A speech that still resonates up to this day.

Compiled by
Cde Cakes 'Makhekhe' Sankara Vundla

Cakes Vundla is the new ZAPU Europe Secretary of Policy & Strategy. You can contact Cde Cakes on;
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