Callistus Ndlovu

Callistus Dingiswayo Ndlovu (9 February 1936 – 13 February 2019) was a Zimbabwean academic, diplomat, and politician.

Callistus Dingiswayo Ndlovu was born on 9 February 1936 in Plumtree, a town near the western border of what was then Southern Rhodesia.

He grew up in a Kalanga family of four.

As a boy, Ndlovu herded cattle and often harvested mopane worms to pay for his schooling.

He attended Empandeni High School, a Catholic mission school in Plumtree, where he earned his junior certificate and began training as a teacher.

After the training, he started a correspondence course through the Joint Matriculation Board of South Africa.

After completing matric, he taught from 1959 to 1961 at the Empandeni mission, first at the primary school and later at the high school.

In 1960, Ndlovu joined the National Democratic Party, an African nationalist party founded by Joshua Nkomo.

He then taught Mafakela Primary School in Bulawayo in 1962.

He joined the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in 1963 as a teacher in Matabeleland, and went on to serve as its representative to the United Nations and North America in the 1970s.

In 1963, Ndlovu entered Pius XII Catholic University College in Basutoland (now Lesotho), where he graduated in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, history, and Zulu.

While a student, he served as president of the university's Student Representative Council from 1963 to 1964, and as the publicity secretary of the National Union of Basutoland Students from 1964 to 1965.

In 1963, while a student at Pius XII Catholic University College, he joined the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), and became chairman of the party's branch in Basutoland.

After completing his bachelor's degree, Ndlovu returned to Rhodesia, where he taught economics and Zulu at Mpopoma High School in Bulawayo in 1966 and 1967, and was elected president of the African Teachers' Association in Matabeleland.

While a teacher, was detained for three months at Khami prison by the Rhodesian government for promoting ZAPU politics.

Upon release, Ndlovu left Rhodesia for New York, where he studied towards his MA and PhD on an Aggrey Fellowship.

While in the United States, Ndlovu served as ZAPU's chairman for North America from 1967 to 1971, and was a member of the party's Revolutionary Council from 1971 to 1980.

He went on to earn a Master of Arts in history from New York University in 1969, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in history from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1973.

His doctoral dissertation was titled Missionaries and Traders in the Ndebele Kingdom.

Between 1969 and 1980, he was an associate professor of history and political science and director of the African Studies Institute at Hofstra University on Long Island.

He received an award for distinguished teaching in 1973, and was granted Freedom of the City by Minneapolis in 1973.

From 1973 to 1979, he was ZAPU's chief representative to the United Nations, and opened an office for the party near the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.

Ndlovu attended the 1976 Geneva Conference and the 1979 Lancaster House Conference as a political advisor to the Patriotic Front delegations.

During the liberation struggle, Ndlovu often made trips to ZAPU camps in Zambia, where he was responsible for ensuring supplies of medicine, books, and other necessities, which he obtained with the support of the African-American Institute.

After Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, he was a member of the House of Assembly from 1980 to 1985 and served as a senator from 1985 to 1990.

Ndlovu held several portfolios in Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's cabinet in the 1980s, serving as Minister of Construction from 1982 to 1984, Minister of Mines from 1984 to 1985, and Minister of Industry and Technology between 1985 and 1989.

Ndlovu returned to Zimbabwe at independence in 1980, and worked as a director at Carbin Finance and as a group industrial relations manager with Union Carbide.

In the 1980 election, he earned a seat in the House of Assembly as an MP for Matabeleland South Province, and served as a member of ZAPU's Central Committee between 1980 and 1983.

On 16 April 1982, he was named Minister of Construction by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, replacing Clement Muchachi, who resigned as Minister of Works after ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo was sacked from the cabinet.

His appointment strained the already difficult relations between Nkomo and Ndlovu, who in previous instances had opposed Nkomo at party councils, and who had chaired a parliamentary committee enquiring into Nkomo's and ZAPU's companies.

In May 1982, ZAPU's publicity secretary announced on behalf of the party's Central Committee that the appointments of Ndlovu and two other ZAPU officials to the cabinet "did not have the blessing of the party," because they were made without Mugabe consulting ZAPU leadership.

At a party meeting in Bulawayo on 8 May 1982, Ndlovu defended his decision to join Mugabe's cabinet and accused ZAPU leadership of employing a double standard for refusing to support his appointment, as the party had approved the appointment of three other ZAPU ministers in the past.

He left ZAPU and joined the ruling ZANU–PF party in 1984.

On 3 January 1984, Mugabe reshuffled his cabinet, and Ndlovu was appointed to replace Maurice Nyagumbo as Minister of Mines.

On 14 April 1984, Ndlovu announced his resignation from ZAPU.

The following month, on 16 May, he announced he had joined the ruling party, ZANU, a move commended by Prime Minister Mugabe and described as "opportunistic" by ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo.

That year, Ndlovu became ZANU's provincial chairman for Bulawayo, an office he held until 1987.

In 1989, he was implicated in the Willowgate corruption scandal and resigned from the cabinet after being accused of lying to the official panel investigating the allegations.

He ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 2000 and again for the Senate in 2013, and served on the ZANU–PF Central Committee and as the party's provincial chairman for Bulawayo.

He died in 2019 in South Africa, where he was being treated for cancer.