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Zimbabwe on Monday lost one of its greatest patriotic sons. That is why Zanu-PF did not need to sit in judgment over his national status. Cde Cephas Msipa was immediately conferred with national hero status while opposition leaders fell over each, not so much to mourn Cde Msipa as to spite President Mugabe. Otherwise it is hard to understand why it would be their business to worry about whether Cde Msipa would be declared a national hero or not.

Exposing their usual pettiness, opposition leaders doubted whether Cde Msipa would be declared a national hero because he had become too critical of President Mugabe since he left active politics a few years ago.

It is because they are too petty that they see a contradiction between criticising Zanu-PF and President and being declared a national hero.

Cde Msipa was a true patriot who fought for justice and peace before and in independent Zimbabwe. He was consistent and honest in his quest for justice. Most importantly, in his long association with the revolution he learnt that it was possible to be critical of Zanu-PF and President Mugabe without betraying the revolution or seeking to undermine national sovereignty.

In other words, the national hero appreciated that there are core national values to defend. He spoke honestly and openly about the challenges the nation is going through. He felt keenly people’s suffering. He didn’t need to exaggerate it or gratuitously apportion blame or shield the foreign hand in it.

He served in the Zanu-PF Government in various capacities until 2008, that is well into the land reform. If he did not believe in what the party or Government or President Mugabe for that matter, were doing, he was an honest man enough to have expressed his reservations or to resign. He didn’t because he believed the policies adopted by the party were meant for the good of all.

The problem with opposition politics today is they equate heroism to any act or anyone who attacks Zanu-PF and the land reform and speaks well of everything the West says. That is why they will seek to appropriate to their cause anyone who criticises Zanu-PF, in the process soiling them.

Whereas the likes of Cde Msipa criticise to build, the opposition attacks to destroy. That is a major difference. You can criticise without turning into an enemy of the people’s cause. Msipa may have differed with his Zanu-PF colleagues from time to time, but he never lost sight of the bigger picture, the cause of the revolution.

He differs from those who benefit from Zanu-PF policies, but plead innocence or powerlessness once they are expelled from the party and are challenged about their role in those policies. That was not the way of national hero Cephas Msipa.

In moments of despair, Cde Msipa would ask, “Is this what we fought for?”

But there is no way he supported the invasion of Zimbabwe by the West for repossessing its land, there is nowhere he supported sanctions against Zimbabwe. At no time did he oppose aid for Zimbabwe for ordinary people to suffer. This is contrary to the acts of those who pretend to empathise with the people in their current suffering only in so far as they can exploit this for political gain, for a protest vote. That is not the spirit of Cde Msipa.

To an extent, it can be argued that Cde Msipa acted as the conscience of Zanu-PF when he noticed the extent of corruption, the level of deviation from the principles of honest and service to the people.Those were the moments when his conscience impelled him to speak out. He did not speak because he wanted power for himself. He spoke for the voiceless, he was not a self-seeking pretender.

That is why Cde Msipa must grieve in his death at the base motives of some who praise him today as a hero when their reasons are as depraved as those of the devil starting a church. Msipa can never be part of their company.Rest in peace Cde Msipa, son of the soil. The struggle to liberate that soil is not done. The nation of Zimbabwe draws inspiration from you to continue the fight.