HARARE – Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Mozambique and Eswatini, Victor Matemadanda, has died, the foreign affairs ministry announced on Sunday.

He was 66.

The cause of death was not disclosed.

A statement from the ministry of foreign affairs and international trade read: “The ministry of foreign affairs and international trade mourns the passing on of our ambassador to the Republic of Mozambique and the Kingdom of Eswatini, Victor Matemadanda, early this morning.

“The ministry extends its heartfelt condolences to the president, His Excellency Dr. E.D. Mnangagwa, the Matemadanda family and the nation of Zimbabwe.”

Matemadanda, a former Zanu PF national political commissar and ex-deputy minister of defence and war veterans affairs, had served as Zimbabwe’s envoy to Maputo and Mbabane since March 2021.

Born on March 3, 1960, Matemadanda joined ZANLA in 1973 and went to the war front in 1979, operating in the Mutoko area. He went on to become secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), a position from which he played a central role in the war veterans’ public break with former President Robert Mugabe in the years before the 2017 military coup that ended his rule.

Zanu PF spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa described him as a “stalwart” of Zimbabwe’s 1980s bush war of liberation from white colonial rule.

Mutsvangwa said Matemadanda was part of a group of exiles in Mozambique who organised a food convoy to Tembwe, northern Mozambique, after learning that guerrillas undergoing training there were “stalked by extreme hunger.”

In a statement, Mutsvangwa said: “I still vividly remember that life-saving convoy to this day, five decades later. Comrade Matemadanda would go on to decisively serve and save newly independent Zimbabwe in yet another endeavour.

“The dying years of the First Republic witnessed a senile and ailing Robert Mugabe errantly lapsing into dynastic inclination. His youthful spouse and her cohorts saw an opportunity for a palace coup against the state so as to upend the permanent Zimbabwe Revolution.

“Cde Matemadanda, as the Secretary of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), was in my leadership team with me as chairman.

“We flatly refused to let the unpatriotic slide into a family dynasty. Cde Matemadanda was as bold, courageous, daring as he was outspoken in challenging Mugabe’s perfidious assault of the permanent Zimbabwe Revolution.

“He would be imprisoned for his acts of open defiance to the wayward, aging Mugabe. His exploits were not in vain. By November 2017, the people of Zimbabwe would demonstrate in open revolt. The Zimbabwe army readily joined the populace as the mass protest and an ongoing parliamentary impeachment process forced beleaguered Mugabe out of power.”

Matemadanda was elected Member of Parliament for Gokwe Central in the July 2018 elections, having unsuccessfully contested the seat in 2013.