10/09/2026
Today, His Excellency President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa accompanied by the First Lady, Dr. Auxilla Mnangagwa presided over the interment of Cde Edward Raradza at the National Heroes Acre
Cde Raradza was a former ZANU PF Central Committee member, a religious leader, and a revered farmer. He died on 4 September 2026 at Milton Park Medical Centre after suffering heart failure. He was 79.
Cde Raradza was born on 2 July 1947 in Wuyuwuyu Village, in Murewa District Mashonaland East Province to Mateu Raradza and Deerayi Rarardza (née Muzirwa). He was the first-born child in a family of eight. Cde Raradza enrolled for primary education at Wuyuwuyu Primary School and then attended St Benedicts for secondary
education.
As the liberation gathered momentum and nationalist politics spread to schools across the country, Cde Raradza became involved in politics while at St Benedict School in Macheke in 1965. Upon completion he joined the Zanu PF Youth League in Highfields, Harare where he would actively mobilise clothing and other materials for comrades in Mashonaland Central under the mentorship of early nationalists like Cde Mawema, Cde Chinamano, Cde Marere and many others
Cde Raradza was part of the caretaker council of the Patriotic Front involved in agricultural sabotage of white commercial farms and was also part of the group that planned and motivated the escape of former President Cde Mugabe and Cde Tekere in 1975 to join other comrades in Mozambique.
Cde Raradza’s firebrand activism led to his arrest in Harare 1977 where he was then detained at St Marys Police station. He was released in 1978 on condition that he would stay within a certain radius of his home area, report twice a week at St Marys police station and not participate in any political gathering.
In 1980 he was appointed Chairman ZANU PF for Chitungwiza Branch then five years later he became Political Commissar for ZANU PF’s Mabelreign branch. From 1990 to 1995 he served as the District Chairman in Hwata, Centenary. He was appointed to the National Consultative Assembly in 1996 and from 2008 he was a Central Committee Member of the ruling party
Cde Edward Raradza was a prominent entrepreneur and public servant who spearheaded efforts to mechanize land reform by mobilizing funding for agricultural machinery and equipment. He supported the Look East Policy as Zimbabwe faced ZIDERA and Western sanctions from 2002. As founder of Zambezi Gas Zimbabwe Pvt Ltd and one of the first black owners of a coal mine, he created thousands of jobs, contributed to electricity generation, and exported coal to the region and China, generating foreign currency. He also served on the boards of the Agricultural Finance Corporation, Dorowa Minerals, and the Grain Marketing Board.
In agriculture, he was a renowned to***co and cotton merchant involved in contract farming for small-scale resettled growers, and served as Vice President of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union in 2005. He won the Best Livestock Producer Award in 2003 and 2004, co-founded Millenium To***co Floors in 2011, and advocated for indigenous farmers on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture. At the time of his death he was Group Executive Chairman of Farmers World Holdings, where he set up fertilizer blending plants in Zimbabwe and Malawi to improve yields for small-scale farmers. He was ordained Bishop of the African Apostolic Church in 2022.
