Michael Ndubiwa

Michael Ndubiwa’s connection to the Bulawayo City Council began when he was still in high school. He came from a humble background, living in an overcrowded home in the Old Location of Makokoba, when he won a Council bursary in 1958. He then joined the Council as a clerk in 1962, and soon became Ashton’s protégé.

Education

He completed a BA in 1964 (University of Lesotho). He obtained an MA in Public Administration in 1972 from Birmingham (partly funded by a city council scholarship), was the first Black person in southern Africa to receive a diploma from the Southern Africa Institute of Town Clerks in 1978

Career

He became the first African Area Controller in the liquor undertaking, then worked his way up through Assistant Superintendent, Superintendent, Admin Officer, and Senior Admin Officer in the 1970s, became Deputy Town Clerk of Bulawayo in 1979, and by 1984 was the first African Town Clerk in independent Zimbabwe, serving until 1999, when he retired after nearly 40 years of service to the Council.