Eddison zvobgo biography

Eddison Jonasi Mudadirwa Zvobgo (2 October 1935 – 22 August 2004) was a Zimbabwean politician and the founder of Zimbabwe's ruling party, ZANU–PF.
Zvobgo was ZANU (PF)'s top legal adviser and the chief architect of Mugabe's 1987 constitution.
He publicly confirmed what had been unofficially known for some time: that Mines Minister Eddison Zvobgo (60) was in London for treatment.

•

1961 Organising Secretary for the NDP, Southern Province
1962 Representative of ZAPU in USA.
1964 Deputy Secretary-General, ZANU.
1971-72 Deputy Secretary-General, ANC.
1972 Principal Overseas Representative, ANC.
1973 Representative of ZANU in USA.
1977 Deputy Secretary for Information and Publicity, ZANU (Mozambique)
1979 Delegate and Party Spokesman, ZANU, at Lancaster House
1980 MP for Victoria
1980 Minister of Local Government and Housing, Zimbabwe

Eddison Zvobgo was born on 2nd October, 1935 at Mtilikwi near Fort Victoria (Masvingo) in the Victoria Province of south-eastern Rhodesia. His parents were members of the African Reformed Church and his father was a minister while his mother was also a staunch churchwoman. Eddison was brought up in the Dutch Reformed Church. He completed his early schooling at the Waddilove Institute near Marandellas (Marondera) in 1951. From 1952 to 1956 he attended Tegwani Secondary School, the Methodist Mission School near Plumtree. Here he obtained his Matriculation Exemption Certificate. After the pattern of

•

Eddison Zvobgo

While in the USA he addressed United Nations committees on several occasions as the official ZAPU representative during the days before the split in the nationalist ranks.^[1]

Zvobgo left Rhodesia after he got the US scholarship. He came back in 1964 and resumed politics but was soon jailed at Wha Wha prison in Midlands. After serving his prison sentence he was restricted at the new Sikombela Camp with other ZANU leaders. He remained there until November 1965 when, in the days immediately before UDI, he was sent to Salisbury Prison under the emergency legislation. While in prison Zvobgo studied for the University of London’s law degree LL.B. and graduated in 1970. In total he was jailed for 6 years during this period. He then began reading for the Bar examinations which he passed in 1971 while still in detention.^[1]

When he got released in 1971Zvobgo was appointed Deputy Secretary-General in December 1971. In 1972 he was admitted to the Bar and at once began practising in Salisbury. ^[1] He however left abruptly and

•

Eddison Zvobgo and the struggle for Zimbabwe

We do not want to create a socio-legal order in the country in which people are petrified, in which people go to bed having barricaded their doors and their windows because someone belonging to the Special Branch of the police will break into their houses. This is what we have been fighting against.
– Eddison Zvobgo

On August 22, my family, strewn across the globe, remembered the life of Eddison Zvobgo—my uncle, our family patriarch, and one of Zimbabwe’s great men—whose life ended in 2004 after an arduous battle with cancer. With Zimbabweans once again facing an uncertain future, I have been reflecting on his life and involvement in the struggle for Zimbabwe, and wondering what he, and others who sacrificed so much for the nation, would make of contemporary politics.

A Harvard-trained lawyer, poet, and the ZANU-PF spokesperson at the Lancaster House where the eponymous Agreement brought recognized independence to Zimbabwe, Eddison loved his country and served it throughout his life, even at great personal cost.

Like anyone, Eddi