[1] In 1980, Msika was included in the first post-independence government as Minister of Natural Resources and Water Development; he was one of three representatives of ZAPU in the Cabinet, along with Joshua Nkomo and George Silundika.

He was also nominated to the Senate with backing from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.

[1] Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe signed the Unity Accord between ZAPU and ZANU(PF), creating the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), on 22 December 1987.

[10] Msika became ill while attending a regional summit in June 2009, reportedly due to a stroke, and was treated at a South African hospital.

[1] After his death, Mugabe stated that Msika, together with nationalists like George Nyandoro, James Chikerema, Maurice Nyagumbo and Daniel Madzimbamuto, stood out as part of a generation of "fearless founder nationalists to taste arrest and incarceration under the notorious Federal Preventive Detention Laws of February 1959" following the banning of the African National Congress.

President Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and Deputy Prime Ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara were all present for the funeral, at which Msika was buried with full military honours; various high-ranking regional officials, including South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, were also present.

[12] Speaking at the funeral, Mugabe sharply criticised the attitude of Western countries toward Zimbabwe and declared that "our nation will never prosper through foreign handouts".

Msika accused the ZANU-PF of "lying" to the world about being the pioneers in the nationalist movement: "The true history of the liberation struggle should be told.

I feel I have a duty to correct this blatant lie..."[citation needed] Msika questioned Mugabe's past apology for the 1987 Gukurahundi killings, which was condemned internationally for the violence it unleashed on mainly rural Ndebele, at a rally in October 2006 in Bulawayo.