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VP Mphoko

Address by the Honourable Vice-President Cde Phelekezela Mphoko on the occasion of the burial of the late Cde Shuvai Ben Mahofa at the National Heroes’Acre in Harare, yesterday.
The bereaved Mahofa family,
The President of the Senate, Mai Edna Madzongwe,
Speaker of National Assembly, Cde Jacob Mudenda,
The Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province, Mai Miriam Chikukwa,
Chief Justice, Mr Luke Malaba,
Honourable Ministers here present,
Members of the Politburo here present,
Our traditional leaders,
Our Service Chiefs,
Heads of Diplomatic Missions and other members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Representatives of the War Veterans, Ex-Detainees, Ex-Restrictees and War Collaborators,
His Worship the Mayor of the City Harare,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Comrades and Friends.

We are back here again at this Sacred National Shrine to bid farewell and lay to rest an illustrious Daughter of the Soil, Umntwana Womhlabathi/Mwana Wevhu, the late Cde Shuvai Ben Mahofa, who died on Monday last week as we commemorated Heroes Day. Our heroine is the ninth female and 125 Cadre to be laid at this sacred National Shrine. As many of us are aware, Cde Mahofa has not been well for some time.

At the time of her death she had shown positive signs of good recovery to the extent that she was participating very actively in all of her party and Government activities with her usual zeal and enthusiasm she was well-known for. Indeed she was with us at the last Politburo meeting and none of us has ever expected that three weeks down the line she would no longer be with us.

Thus, the news of her untimely death that Monday morning took us all by surprise and it left us shocked and devastated. This sad development was further compounded by her passing on the very day we were commemorating this year’s Heroes Day. What a tragic coincidence that was! It was a phenomenon none of us could explain rationally.

Many of you would recall that His Excellency the President, Cde R.G Mugabe, announced Cde Mahofa’s death here at the commencement of the Heroes’ Day proceedings as he addressed the nation last week on Monday.

The death of Cde Mahofa has robbed the nation, the revolutionary party Zanu-PF and Mahofa family, of a brave, courageous and loyal party cadre, public servant and strong family pillar. The void created by her death will be difficult to fill, the nation and Masvingo Province will be all the poorer without her exemplary leadership.

On behalf of Government and the people of Zimbabwe, the party Zanu-PF, and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to express heartfelt condolences to the Mahofa family on this their saddest loss. They have lost a mother and a grandmother, whom they look up to for wisdom, guidance and solace in their time of need. Let them take comfort from the knowledge that their loss is ours as well and that we share with them the burden together.

Comrades and friends, the heroine we are burying here today has walked a long and arduous journey of our heroic liberation struggle. Mai Mahofa has a long illustrious political career, which dates back to the days of African nationalist politics of the late 50s and the liberation struggle of the 70s. She joined the United National Democratic Party (UNDP) in 1959 when she was still in her late teens, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) in 1960, and thereafter, the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) in 1963.

Indeed, many of her comrades-in-arms, relatives and friends, including those who were privileged to work closely with her after Independence have, in the course of the week gone by, shared with us their moving testimony about her unwavering commitment to the principles, values and ideals of the liberation struggle and to her love and devotion to serving the nation loyally and faithfully in various capacities of the public office.

The spirit of service delivery to our people was her undisputed calling. At the height of our liberation struggle in the late 70s, Mai Mahofa is remembered for her active participation as a war collaborator in her home province of Masvingo. Being a war collaborator demanded as much courage, bravery, discipline and vision, as was demanded of trained guerillas combatants.

She worked hand-in-glove with the late Dr Simon Mazorodze to ensure that medical provisions, clothes, food and other necessities were delivered to and received at the war front. I am told that in turn the comrades trained her in the handling of an array of weapons as she was also responsible for coordinating the carriage of some of the weapons for the ZANLA combatants. She also became a trailblazing political commissar responsible for mobilising the masses to attend pungwes.

It is no surprise that the young commissars in the party today are various versions of Cde Mahofa, the mother of commissars. The freedom fighters relied heavily on the support and cooperation they received from the war collaborators.

War collaborators were brave men and women, courageous boys and girls, who were in the line of fire, both from the enemy if they were caught assisting the freedom fighters, and from the comrades if they sold them out to the enemy. It was not a fete for the faint-hearted, but for brave foot soldiers like Cde Mahofa.

She dared do what some men could not do, working in the line of fire as if things were normal. She experienced it all. Seeing others losing their lives, losing their limps, the shedding of innocent blood by the enemy, all for the sake of liberating this country. No prize was too big to pay for Mai Mahofa, not even with her life if that was it would have cost her to liberate her country from the hands of Rhodesian settlers.

Naturally, at Independence Cde Mahofa’s contribution to the liberation of Zimbabwe was recognised through the numerous portfolios she held in both the ruling Zanu-PF and Government. Politically, she rose through the Party ranks to the Politburo level. Perhaps she would be best remembered as founder-member of Zanu-PF Women’s League and subsequently a member of its National Executive.

In Government, she worked in Local Government as an officer in Gutu District before assuming ministerial appointments. In the intervening years she was appointed Deputy Minister of Gender and Youth Development, Deputy Minister of Political Affairs, Deputy of Women Affairs and Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs. She also served as a legislator in both the lower and upper Houses of Parliament.

All these offices that the late Cde Mahofa held are ample testimony to her impeccable liberation credentials, which later shaped her strong and memorable character as a public officer in the ruling party and Government.

Comrades and friends, it will be remiss of me not to mention that the late Cde Mahofa was also a prayer warrior with deep rooted Christian values and spirituality. I am told that the only constant preoccupation in the days leading to her death was prayer, prayer and more prayer.

In fact she died praying, a testimony that she was one of her maker, Cde and friends in the late Cde Mahofa we had a political cadre, who was straight forward, trustworthy and morally upright. This is not something that we can say about many to be without risking contradicting ourselves.

Cde Mahofa subordinated herself to the party leadership and embraced wholeheartedly the work and assignments she was given; she was complete in herself. As such, there is no need for anyone to spoil her status to seek, to hijack it for the purpose of advancing any narrow or sinister agenda. National heroes and heroines like Cde Mahofa are by definition figures and rallying pawns of national unity. Any attempt to use national heroes and heroines for any decisive politics is a betrayal of the game of the liberation struggle.

To this new generation of cadres and of our youth, I say that in the passing on of Mai Mahofa we have a challenge to visualise and appreciate what she and her generation went through to attain the Independence we enjoy today.

They never gave up on the liberation struggle and they never sold out. Mai Mahofa was one such person. All she asked of our youths and us all is to continue to guard jealously the country we call Zimbabwe and ensure that it remains free, independent and a sovereign country. It will be a great betrayal to Mai Mahofa and to all the heroes and heroines, who lie here and elsewhere, who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of their country. All they ask of us is that we keep our Zimbabwe for the present and future generations.

Now that we have our land back, our fallen heroes ask of us to play our part with equal and better honour. Political Independence has been bequeathed to us and it is economic independence that we have now to fight for. The economy has got to be grown by us. We have well-educated citizens, well-skilled, therefore, we have very little excuse for falling in that regard.

This generation must wrestle economic power, so that our country becomes genuinely free. We should never allow our country to be a colony again. The programme of indegenisation and empowerment was introduced so that we regain control of the economy. It is a process we must continue to work on until our ultimate objective has been achieved.

In conclusion, Comrades and friends allow me to say to Cde Mahofa, well-done, daughter of the soil. Indeed, you played your part during the days of your productive life here on earth before and after Independence.

Your good deeds and the legacy you have left behind we shall emulate and not only follow through to fruition, but also pass on to the younger generation in coming posterity.

Go well daughter of the soil!

Famba zvakanaka Mwana Wevhu!

Go well mother of all commissars!

Fambai zvakanaka comrade!

Hamba kuhle qhawe lethu!

May God Bless You!

I thank you.