By Hopewell Chin’ono Chief Nyamukoho died on Thursday. He was a man of great contradictions, unwavering and doggedness determination, and above all, he was a man loved and loathed in equal measure. I am writing about how I knew him as Samson Katsande, an astute and ruthless businessman, and one of the first black millionaires in colonial Rhodesia. My father was a civil servant at Murewa where Samson Katsande ran the biggest retail outlet called Mapereke Stores. I became friends with his son Rockie, and his little sister Tino became my little sister too. Today she is known as Tin-Tin the radio broadcaster, or Joyce the actress in Studio 263! Our friendship was not built on what my family had, but on us just being young kids growing up in Murewa. My father was not wealthy or rich, yet Rockie’s dad was one of the richest businesspeople not only in Murewa, but the whole country. As kids growing up those things meant nothing to us, however I felt the weight of their wealth when it was my turn to hang out at their home, which was behind their massive retail complex. When I took out my wire made cars, Rockie brought out battery powered toys, he would ask me to choose the ones I wanted to play with. I vividly remember Rockie’s dad attempting to teach me how to play a piano, that attempt was a spectacular disaster. They had a huge and grand white piano in the hallway of their home in Murewa, to me it was unknown sophistry. Samson Katsande was a handsome and confident man who was married to an equally beautiful woman, Tino’s mother. He was a straight shooter who didn’t hide his feelings whether be it anger or joy, and he had that cockiness of a wealthy man who lived ahead of his time. In 1985/6, ZANUPF sent a sign writer called Kenneth Bute to Murewa Mission which was run by the United Methodist Church, the church’s leader was Bishop Abel Muzorewa the politician. Bute’s order from ZANUPF was to get rid of all the teachers and clerics sympathetic to Muzorewa’s UANC political party. As High School students, we were let out of our dormitories at night to go and harass these teachers and churchmen. Their homes were looted with Bute’s complicit and students sang outside their homes. Samson Katsande who was a United Methodist church member went to see my father at our humble Government owned home. My dad was also a church member of the United Methodist. Both men were sympathetic to ZANUPF’s liberation ethos and efforts, but they were greatly appalled by how Kenneth Bute had trashed the school. My dad attended a meeting where Kenneth Bute addressed us as students, appallingly in the school church. My dad stood up and spoke against the abuse of students by using them to settle political issues and scores! “Kenneth,” my father bellowed. “You are out of order, this is not what we fought for, and you can’t use our kids to fight your political enemies,” my father said shaking with rage. This was 1986 not 2021. For his efforts Kenneth Bute was rewarded by ZANUPF, he became the Deputy Minister for Community and Cooperative Development and W