Former MDC Member Of Parliament Esaph Mdlongwa Remembered
Matabeleland-based pressure group, Ibhetshu likazulu on Friday held a memorial lecture for the late former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator and veteran trade unionist, Esaph Mdlongwa in Bulawayo.
Mdlongwa died on October 15, 2020.
Delivering a lecture at the event, former Bulawayo senator and fellow trade unionist Gideon Shoko said Mdlongwa was a hero in the trade union movement. NewsDay cites Shoko as saying:
He joined the Railways around 1965 and immediately became active in the trade union because of the influence he got from the late former Vice-President Joshua Nkomo. In 1974, he became a trustee of the trade union and in 1987 he was chosen as a trustee at Amalgamated Railway Worker Union as well.
Former MDC-T vice-president Thokozani Khuphe who worked with the late Mdlongwa when she was only 24 years old, said the late Mdlongwa was a believer in equal rights for all.
Said Khupe, a former Deputy Prime Minister during the Government of National Unity (GNU):
He was a great believer in equal opportunity, a great person who fought hard to remove Zimbabweans from the jaws of poverty. Mdlongwa was one person who fought all his life for equal work, equal pay, decent salaries, and paid maternity leave. He was a charismatic character, especially with his slogan ‘Tshisampama’ which moved crowds.
Sindile Mdlongwa described his father as a person who believed in uniting his family.
