Josiah Zion Gumede

Infobox Officeholder
honorific-prefix =The Hon.
name =Josiah Gumede
honorific-suffix =

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caption =Josiah Zion Gumede
order =1st
office =President of Zimbabwe Rhodesia
term_start =1 June, 1979
term_end =12 December, 1979
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monarch =
president =
primeminister =Abel Muzorewa
governor =
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succeeding =
predecessor =Henry Everard
successor =Canaan Banana
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birth_date =19 September 1919
birth_place =Southern Rhodesia
death_date =1989
death_place =Zimbabwe
nationality =Zimbabwean
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children = Ndabiqondile Mandla Gumede
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Josiah Zion Gumede (19 September, 1919—1989) was the first and last president of the self-proclaimed, and internationally unrecognised, state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia during 1979, before Rhodesia briefly reverted to British rule until the country's independence as Zimbabwe in 1980. He died in 1989.

Josiah Gumede was born in Bembes, in the Bubi District of Southern Rhodesia. He was educated at the David Livingstone Memorial Mission and Matopo Mission before matriculating in the Cape Province (South Africa) in 1946. He taught at various mission and government schools and ended his teaching career as a headmaster. He was the assistant information and education attache for the Government of Rhodesia and Nyasaland at Rhodesia House in London between 1960 and 1962. He then joined the Ministry of External Affairs (1963 - 1965).

He was at one time General Secretary for the then African Teachers' Association of Rhodesia; a member of the Wankie Disaster Relief Fund's Board of Trustees; a director of the Tribal Trust Land Development Corporation; and a board member of the National Free Library of Rhodesia. He was also an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa.

References

*Newitt, Louise (ed). "Prominent Rhodesian Personalities" (Cover Publicity Services, Salisbury, 1977).

Persondata
NAME = Gumede, Josiah Zion
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = President of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
DATE OF BIRTH = 19 September 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH = Bembes (Bubi District), Southern Rhodesia
DATE OF DEATH = 1989
PLACE OF DEATH = Zimbabwe