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People pay their last respects to the late National Heroine Victoria Chitepo at One Commando Regiment in Harare yesterday.-Pictures by Munyaradzi Chamalimba – Zimpapers Online

Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter—
HISTORY will be made tomorrow when two heroines, who both died last Friday, will be laid to rest among men and women of their ilk at the National Heroes Acre, the first such joint burial in the history of the hallowed grounds. This comes in the wake of the conferment of national heroine status on Cde Vivian Mwashita, a venerated war veteran and former Zanu-PF House of Assembly member for Sunningdale who succumbed to diabetes last Friday, the same day another national heroine Cde Victoria Chitepo was found dead in the bathroom of her Mt Pleasant house.

Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, (in blue) and the party’s Manicaland provincial chairman, Dr Samuel Undenge (3rd from right) join relatives in paying their last respects to the late National Heroine Victoria Chitepo at One Commando Regiment in Harare on Monday.

Zanu-PF secretary for Administration and Home Affairs Minister, Cde Ignatius Chombo, announced Cde Mwashita’s national heroine status at her funeral wake in New Cranborne, Harare, last night.

Read more:

• Go well Cde Mwashita, you fought good fight

• Zanu-PF mourns Mwashita, Chinamano

• Vivian Mwashita no more

• Dignitaries hail Chitepo’s humility

He was accompanied by service chiefs, among them Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga, Zimbabwe National Army Commander Lieutenant-General Philip Valerio Sibanda, Air Force of Zimbabwe Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri and Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Commissioner-General Paradzai Zimondi.

Zimbabwe Defence Forces Chaplain General Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Nyakudya consoles Thokozile daughter to the late National Heroine Victoria Chitepo at One Commando Regiment in Harare yesterday.

Also present were Zimbabwe Republic Police Deputy Commissioner-General Innocent Matibiri and Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Ex-Political Detainees and Restrictees permanent secretary Brigadier-General (Retired) Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi.

Cde Chombo said the past week had been difficult for Zanu-PF following the demise of Cdes Mwashita, Chitepo and Chinyani Chinamano, the son of national liberation heroes, Cdes Josiah and Ruth Chinamano.

“On Friday, after receiving news of the death of Cde Chitepo, we then received a letter from Cde Charles Tawenga advising us of the death of Cde Mwashita. “Then on Saturday, we also received news that the last son of Cdes Josiah and Ruth Chinamano had been found dead in Highfield.

Thokozile Chitepo chats with Ministers Oppah Muchinguri,Abednigo Ncube and Abigail Damasani at One Commando Regiment

“We then asked war veterans who worked with Cde Mwashita during the liberation struggle, the likes of Cde Chiwenga, Cde Shiri, Cde Tapfumaneyi and Minister of Water, Mai Kashiri (Oppah Muchinguri) for a detailed history of her contribution.

“They put everything together, starting from Rusape where she was born, then when she came here (to Harare) where she did her primary school, before going to St Peter’s Kubatana in Highfield where she did her secondary education.

“They also wrote about how she went to the liberation struggle in 1975 where she was trained by such comrades as Augustine Chihuri before she also became a trainer during the bombing of Nyadzonia.” Cde Chombo said the Politburo was convinced that Cde Mwashita deserved to be interred at the national shrine.

“As the Politburo, we completed the consultations this afternoon as instructed by President Mugabe that we should consult all the members to ensure there was consensus.

“Politburo members concurred that she was a consistent cadre who was committed to the liberation of the country. She is someone who was consistent during the liberation struggle and remained so even after Independence. Others were expelled while some were suspended from the party because they sold out, but she remained consistent.

“We even checked her history during her tenure in the Central Intelligence Organisation for more than 10 years and when she became an MP. We found out that her history was that of a consistent cadre. So, President Mugabe said she should be declared a national heroine,” said Cde Chombo drawing ululation from mourners who broke into song and dance.

He said the family had also agreed to have Cde Mwashita buried at the national shrine alongside Cde Chitepo tomorrow. “It is the first time that it is happening that we have national heroines being interred at the national shrine at the same time,” said Cde Chombo.

Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Oppah Muchinguri, Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Udenge and Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Deputy Minister Abigail Damasane pay their last respects to the late National Heroine Cde Victoria Chitepo during a service at One Commando Regiment in Harare yesterday.

Cde Mwashita, who was 58, joined the liberation struggle in 1975 and after training she was deployed in Rushinga where she operated until the end of the war. At Independence, Cde Mwashita joined the Office of the President and later mainstream politics and became the Member of Parliament for Sunningdale and later Senator.

She leaves behind, her husband, Mr Peter Muchicho, three children and six grandchildren. Cde Mwashita was born at Rusape Hospital on September 26, 1958.

Pall bearers carry the casket bearing the body of Cde Victoria Chitepo before it was flown to her rural home near Bonda Mission in Manicaland on Monday.

She attended primary school at Rukudzo Primary School in Kambuzuma in Harare before enrolling at St Peter’s Kubatana High School, in Highfield for form one to four.

The national heroine then crossed into Mozambique in April 1975. At Independence in 1980, Cde Mwashita first worked at the Zanu Headquarters at No. 88 Manica Road (now Robert Mugabe Street), in Harare.

She was later attested into the Central Intelligence Organisation, where she served until 1992, before she retired to join politics. In 1995, Cde Mwashita won the Harare South Constituency on a Zanu-PF ticket before becoming the Zanu-PF Senator for Mvurachena Constituency in Harare.