Edgar Tekere
Edgar Tekere was a Zimbabwean politician and national hero.
Edgar Zivanai “Twoboy” Tekere was born 0n the 1st of April 1937, Mutare, Zimbabwe into a royal family.
Education:
St Agustine’s Mission, Penhalonga, Zimbabwe
Career:
Tekere joined the City Youth League at the beginning of Zimbabwe’s nationalism in 1956, an organisation that was founded by early civil leaders James Chikerema and George Nyandoro.
At the inception of the African National Congress after it took the place of the ANYL he became a member.
In 1958 Edgar moved to Salisbury (Harare) where he obtained employment in a religious bookshop. The following year in 1959 he was detained for being as a member of a radical organisation due to his ties with the ANC.
When the ANC was banned he joined and became a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP) after its formation in 1960.With banning of NDP in 1961 he joined ZAPU also at its inception and was subsequently elected Secretary of Salisbury District Council.
At ZANU’s birth following a split within ZAPU, he joined and became a member of ZANU and was elected Deputy Secretary General for Youth and Culture at the party’s congress in 1964. In October 1964 he was detained but won his release with a successful court action against the Minister of Justice, but later rearrested and detained at Wha Wha.
When the British Secretary for Common-wealth Relations, Arthur Bottomley visited Rhodesia he was part of the delegation that met with him for discussions on the issue of Rhodesian Independence in February 1965
He was detained at Salisbury Prison from November 1965 until May 1974.
In 1964 he was transferred, first to Connemara Prison and later to Kwekwe. He was released in December 1974 to enable him to travel to Lusaka for the talks leading to the unification of all nationalist parties under the ANC.
In 1975 he returned to Lusaka and engrossed himself immensely in the recruit of fighters for the oncoming war.
Following the release from detention of key nationalist leaders, including Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole and Robert Mugabe at the end of 1974 so they could attend detente and unity talks in Lusaka with the South African Government and African Frontline State leaders, Tekere and Robert Mugabe left Rhodesia in 1975 and moved to Mozambique organising the guerrilla war that would result in the Independence of Zimbabwe in 1980
At Zimbabwe’s Independence in April 1980,Tekere was the Secretary General ZANU (PF) and was also a cabinet minister heading the Ministry of Manpower Planning portfolio
Tekere went on trial for murder in 1980 and was on the 8 December acquitted as the High Court found him not guilty of murder
He was expelled from Zanu (PF) in 1988 and the following year formed his own party, the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) that received 20 percent of the vote in presidential and parliamentary elections held in 1990
Edgar Tekere died on 7 June 2011 in Mutare, Zimbabwe and was declared a National Hero
