Prolific and multi-award winning author Dr Charles Mungoshi has died.
He was 71.
Dr Mungoshi had been ill for ten years, from a neurological condition to which he succumbed this morning, at Parirenyatwa Hospital.
He was a prolific and multi-award winning novelist, poet, short-story writer, actor who was internationally recognised and celebrated.
Dr Mungoshi published 18 books which include ‘Waiting for the Rain in 1975’, ‘Ndiko Kupindana Kwemazuva – 1975’, ‘Makunun’unu Maodza Moyo – 1970’, ‘The Milkman Doesn’t Only Deliver Milk – 1981’, ‘Inongova Njake Njake – 1980’, ‘Coming of the Dry Season – 1972’, ‘Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness -2013’.
Among other accolades, Dr Mungoshi twice won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize of Best Book in Africa and was subsequently invited to meet the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth.
One of his poems was curetted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a permanent display as public art at their new headquarters in Seattle, Washington USA in 2011.
In 2003, Dr Mungoshi was conferred with an Honourary Doctorate Degree by the University of Zimbabwe after winning multiple awards which include Zimbabwe’s 75 best books where he appeared in the top five lists in both Shona and English categories.
Dr Mungoshi is survived by his wife Jesesi, 5 children Farai, Graham, Nyasha, Charles and Tsitsi and 7 grandchildren.
Funeral details will be announced in due course.
Mourners are gathered at Number47 Uta St Zengeza 1, Chitungwiza.
SOURCE: ZBC NEWS ONLINE