Nathan Banana
Nathan Sipho Banana is a Zimbabwean aspiring politician, philanthropist and interim president of the Freedom Justice Coalition of Zimbabwe (FJCZ) since 2014. The party was founded by ordinary Zimbabweans from diverse backgrounds and has had two previous presidents, Dr Ngoni Kamhuka and Abigail Ncube Siziba before Banana. Banana is the son of former first Zimbabwean president, the late Canaan Banana.
Background and Education
Banana was born in Rhodesia in 1967.
Banana started his primary schooling at Rosemary Hills Elementary School in the United States of America where his father Canaan Banana was exiled and where he pursued his academic studies in Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. On their return to then Rhodesia he was enrolled at Matshayisikova Government Primary School in New Luveve. In 1980 just before Zimbabwe's independence his family moved to Harare where his father was to be appointed the first President of Independent Zimbabwe. He was enrolled at Hartmann House Preparatory School along Borrowdale Road not far from State House.
In 1982 he was enrolled at Churchill High School in Harare where he completed his ‘O’ levels. He did not proceed to A' Level, but instead joined the Zimbabwe Republic Police as Police Constable first working at Police General Headquarters Recruitment Office.
He left Zimbabwe in 1992 to start a new life away from the shadow of his father's public profile. In 1999 he began his studies in IT in Johannesburg but was later forced by circumstances surrounding his late father's widely publicised controversial case and joined his mother and sister who had sought asylum in the United Kingdom on compassionate grounds. In 2003 he was forced by circumstances to accompany the father's body back to Zimbabwe for burial, he had been struggling with prostate cancer and died at Charring Cross Hospital in London on the 10th November. In 2005 he went back to the UK where he continued his professional IT studies before returning to South Africa where he started working as an IT Field Engineer on contracts from XON Group of companies working for City of Johannesburg, ABSA Bank, Masana Technologies, SA Breweries before taking a more permanent role at Lafarge Aggregates and Cements and later Global Trader SA. Due to personal family issues he was forced again to return to join his family in the United Kingdom In May 2007. In early 2009 he enrolled for a Higher Education Diploma at Stockport College before proceeding to start his studies at University of Manchester Business school enrolling for Bsc Hons IT Management for Business with Industrial Experience degree. Due to the UK recession that ended in 2013 he was forced to leave his full-time study after 2 years [2009-2012] and to seek employment. He transferred his credits and enrolled in part-time study with the Open University for an Open Honours Degree [2013-2016] which was a combination of modules in Politics, Law and International Development and graduated in 2016.
Political Career
In 2016, Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe Party had their first press conference at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa where Banana announced that the party would look to contest in 2018 elections pending the endorsement of candidates at their first elective congress..
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