Joseph Msika
Joseph Msika was a Zimbabwean politician and national hero who served as the country’s Vice-President from 1999 to the time of his death.
He was born in Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central Province on 6 December 1923.
He attended Howard Institute in the same province and also Mt Selinda School in Mount Selinda, Manicaland Province.
Msika trained as a carpenter in Bulawayo between the years 1951 and 1953. He moved to South Africa where he found work in a clothing manufacturing firm. He returned to Zimbabwe and started work as a carpentry teacher at Usher Institute.
On leaving Usher Institute he traveled to Bulawayo where he obtained work in a textile firm. It was during this time that he became President of the Textile and Allied Workers Union. He was detained at Khami and Marondera prison between 1959 and 1961. On leaving prison he was elected an NDP Councillor in 1963.
In the same year he joined and became a member and Secretary for Youth Affairs for ZAPU in 1963. With the banning of ZAPU he joined the Peoples Caretaker Council and was appointed Secretary for External Affairs. He was detained at Gonakudzingwa and other detention centres between 1964 and 1974.
After leaving detention he became a Central Committee Member for the African National Council in 1974. He was elected Secretary General of the African National Council and then in 1976 he was elected the Secretary General ZAPU.
Msika was part of the delegation to the Lancaster House Conference for the country’s independence. During the 1980 elections he was elected Senator and joined the first independent senate.
The Prime Minister appointed him Minister of Natural Resources and Water Development in the new cabinet of 1980. He was removed from government in 1982 following the ZANU and ZAPU wrangle.
Following the Unity Accord in 1987 he was appointed Minister of Local Government Rural and Urban Development a position he held until 1995.
From 1995 to 1999 he served in government as a Minister Without Portfolio and National Chairman of ZANU-PF.
When the then Vice-President Joshua Nkomo died he succeeded him as Vice-President of Zimbabwe and remained in this role until his own passing on 4 August 2009. He was declared a national hero and buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
