John Nkomo
John Landa Nkomo was a Zimbabwean politician and national hero who served as the country’s Vice-President from 2009 to 2013.
Nkomo was born on 22 August 1934 in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North Province in Zimbabwe.
Education:
- Methodist School Manqe
- Seventh Day Adventist School at Mazibisa
- St Ninian’s Anglican School
- Solusi Mission School near Bulawayo.
- Teacher training 1958
Career:
He started work in a Bulawayo clothing factory as a stores assistant. In 1958 he moved into teaching starting at a mission school and in the same year he went to teach at Nkulumane Government School in Bulawayo.
From 1968 to 1975 he was a Ledger Clerk for a packaging company in Bulawayo.
Political Career:
John Nkomo joined the African National Congress in 1958 and also became a member of the African Teachers’ Association during his teaching days. He also held and served in the following posts and positions:
- Secretary of the local Residents Association (1961-64)
- Secretary Bulawayo African Residents Association (1964-73)
- 1973-75 Deputy Secretary—General, ANC
- 1975 (May) External Representative, ANC (Lusaka)
- 1975 (Sept.) External Representative, ANC (Nkomo) (Lusaka)
- Following the banning of the African National Congress, he joined and was a member of the political parties that followed, the NDP (National Democratic Party), ZAPU and PCC (People’s Caretaker Council)
- Detained at Gonakudzingwa (1965-68)
- He joined the African National Council (ANC) when it was founded (1971) and became Secretary of the Education Committee
- ANC Deputy Secretary—General (1973)
- Secretary of African National Council (ANC) Geneva Conference delegation, Joshua Nkomo faction (1976)
- He was seriously injured by the same parcel bomb which killed Jason Moyo in Lusaka on 22 January 1977
- Matabeleland North Member of Parliament (1980-1985)
- Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy (1981)
- Speaker of Parliament (2005 -2009)
- ZANU-PF National Chairman
- Appointed to the Senate in 2008 and elevated to Minister of State in the President’s Office in 2009
- Appointed Vice-President of Zimbabwe succeeding Joseph Msika and sworn in on the 14th of December 2009 and remained VP until his death in 2013
- Minister of State in the President’s Office responsible for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration in the Government of National Unity (2009)
He died of cancer on the 17th of January 2013 at St Anne’s hospital in Harare, was declared a National Hero and buried at the National Heroe’s Acre.
