For 28 years, Rodwell Zimba pressed the courts to conclude his compensation claim case for atrocities he suffered during the one-party State that ended through a National Referendum in 1993.
However, Zimba’s pursuit has ended up being a vain wait as he breathed his last on Tuesday and will be laid to rest today at HHI Cemetery in Blantyre.
In an interview yesterday, Zimba’s son, Gerald, confirmed his father’s death, saying he collapsed suddenly before he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
“He has been on-and-off for some time. But things got worse yesterday and he was taken to the hospital. It seems he died on the way because when we arrived at the hospital, the doctor said he had already passed on,” he said.
The octogenarian’s demise draws a grim curtain on a nearly three-decade legal battle for compensation for atrocities suffered under the leadership of founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda and Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
In an earlier interview with our sister newspaper Weekend Nation, Zimba recalled that on February 4 1976, two Special Branch police operatives took him from his home in Blantyre to Zomba for interrogation by the branch’s then head, Focus Gwede.
“They accused me of tribalism, claiming I was involved in a debate over which tribe was better than the other in the country,” he said.
At the time he met his fate, Zimba was working as undersecretary in the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Culture.
He recalled spending 13 months in detention without charge and on July 2 1993, after the dawn of plural politics, he filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Malawi, claiming withheld salary, allowances, pension and gratuity.
Zimba said that then presiding High Court Judge Dunstain Mwaungulu, now a retired Justice of Appeal (JA), reserved his ruling in 1998. But Mwaungulu, who retired in 2021, said he could not recall Zimba’s case.
In an interview yesterday, National Advocacy Platform chairperson Benedicto Kondowe expressed shock that a person could wait for justice for such long time, but could still not get it.
“The reported death of Mr. Rodwell Zimba after 28 years of pursuing justice over alleged false imprisonment and wrongful dismissal is deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the effectiveness of our justice delivery system. While the circumstances surrounding the prolonged proceedings require careful examination, no person should have to spend nearly three decades seeking a judicial determination of their rights, only to die before obtaining closure,” he said.
Kondowe, who is a private practice lawyer, said Section 41 of the Constitution guarantees access to justice and effective remedies while Section 42 protects the rights of persons deprived of liberty.
“Justice delayed to this extent risks becoming justice permanently denied, eroding public confidence in the Judiciary and the rule of law,” he said.
Gerald said since Weekend Nation published the article on May 30 2026, things were moving on the case, but expressed sadness that his father will not see conclusion of his case.
Zimba came from Kamphokoto Village, Traditional Authority M’mbelwa in Mzimba District.
