GIBSON Sibanda, the MDC’s former deputy leader, was laid to rest in his home village of Silalatshani in Filabusi on Sunday.
Vice President John Nkomo, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara delivered graveside eulogies, all describing him as a “good man”.
“Today we are burying a national hero whose works speak for themselves,” Tsvangirai said, crediting the former president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions for championing the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – the most formidable opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF since independence.
“He formed the MDC and appointed me to lead it ... he was a selfless man,” Tsvangirai said, speaking a day after he publicly apologised for personal attacks he aimed at Sibanda when the MDC was fractured into two factions in 2005.
Vice President Nkomo said he had known Sibanda since their youth when they were activists in the liberation movement as members of ZAPU.
“Gibson was a gift to his family and the nation as a whole," Nkomo said.
Mutambara described Sibanda as a “leader of leaders” who had inspired many into politics and trade unionism.
Sibanda succumbed to cancer at the age of 66. He is survived by five children following his wife’s death in 2003.
The funeral was attended by leaders from all Zimbabwe’s main political parties, including the man he defeated in the 2000 parliamentary race for Nkulumane – Dumiso Dabengwa, now leader of the revived ZAPU. Dabengwa was campaigning on a Zanu PF ticket in the first election which announced the MDC as a major political force in Zimbabwean politics.
Personal regrets ... Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC spokesman and ICT Minister
Nelson Chamisa attend a church service at the United Methodist Church in Bulawayo on Saturday
Mourning ... Sibanda's casket sits in front of Mutambara and ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa