Joseph Msika

Joseph Wilfred Msika (6 December 1923 – 4 August 2009), was a Zimbabwean politician who served as Second Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 1999 to 2009.

Early life Msika was born in Mazowe, in the Chiweshe district of Southern Rhodesia. He attended Howard and Mt Selinda institutes, where he trained to become a carpentry teacher.

Later, Msika was a teacher at Usher Institute and became active in nationalist politics, working with nationalists such as Masotsha Ndlovu and Benjamin Burombo. He joined the Rhodesia Textile and Allied Workers' Union around 1944 or 1945. and was detained at Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp. In 1979, Msika was a member of the delegation to the Lancaster House Agreement that forged independence for Zimbabwe. He was dismissed from the government in 1982,

On 5 March 2005, Msika was taken into hospital after collapsing at home, apparently having suffered a stroke and a blood clot in his head. He did not run in the March 2005 parliamentary election, but Mugabe appointed him to one of the thirty unelected seats in the House of Assembly. He also did not run in the March 2008 parliamentary election, but was appointed to the Senate by Mugabe on 25 August 2008. He was then sworn in again as Vice-President by Mugabe on 13 October 2008, together with Joyce Mujuru. In January 2009, when Mugabe went on his customary annual leave, Msika became Acting President.

Msika became ill while attending a regional summit in June 2009, reportedly due to a stroke, and was treated at a South African hospital. He subsequently died at the West End Hospital in Harare on 4 August 2009 Later in the day, the ZANU-PF Politburo met and agreed to confer upon Msika the status of national hero; it also agreed that he would be buried at National Heroes' Acre. At the time of his death, Msika was the Second Secretary of ZANU-PF. Msika's funeral was held on 10 August, thereby coinciding with National Heroes Day. President Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and Deputy Prime Ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara were all present for the funeral, at which Msika was buried with full military honours; various high-ranking regional officials, including South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, were also present.

Disagreements with Mugabe

"Samkange insulted us, saying he could not work with unschooled people. Dumbutshena also insulted us saying we were unemployable and violent people against the whites. Mwanaka never responded. But Nkomo said what we were planning to do, the road that we would walk, would be a thorny one and said if we were prepared to face it he would join us, which he did," said Msika. He said it was then that Nkomo became the leader of the black nationalist movement in Rhodesia. Msika accused the ZANU-PF of "lying" to the world about being the pioneers in the nationalist movement: "The true history of the liberation struggle should be told. I feel I have a duty to correct this blatant lie..."

Msika questioned Mugabe's past apology for the 1987 Gukurahundi killings, which was condemned internationally for the violence it unleashed on mainly rural Ndebele, at a rally in October 2006 in Bulawayo. "When we asked him about the massacres he apologized, but I was not convinced about his sincerity," he said.