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President Mugabe addressing the crowd at the National Heroes Acre

Sports Reporter
PRESIDENT Mugabe has pledged to lead efforts to spruce up Gwanzura Stadium in Highfield, Harare, as a fitting tribute and honour to the late national hero Eric Nyakudya Gwanzura who was buried at the National Heroes Acre yesterday.
Gwanzura, who was a builder and national liberation fighter, died at his Chegutu home on December 9.
As he fought for freedom of the country, Gwanzura also left a legacy for the sporting fraternity after fronting the construction of Zimbabwe’s oldest Caf-approved football facility in the 1960s.

Speaking at the hero’s burial yesterday, President Mugabe said there was need to refurbish Gwanzura into a modern facility but he was quick to point out that the infrastructure remains in the hands of local government and not the family.

The Presient made the remarks after one of the late Gwanzura’s sons had in his speech alluded to the future of the stadium’s name.
“Manzwa mwana achiti pano, zvino baba zvavaenda, nhandare iya inonzi Gwanzura, haisi yenhaka yenyu vemhuri aiwa taramba. Inhaka yevanhu veZimbabwe vekuHighfield, kufour miler, kwainzi kufour-miler before”

He said during the colonial period, a person could walk the distance of four miles to the Highfield administration before it had expanded to its present day state.

President Mugabe said Highfield was meant to accommodate workers in Government and had no recreational facilities while Harare, now Mbare, had facilities run by the municipality.

“We are here to lay to rest quite a man of various skills, the skill to work with others, the skills that he got kuchikoro as a builder, the skills that he imparted.

“He worked beyond that and went to develop sport and hence we have the Gwanzura Stadium. We will continue to pay attention to it. Ndingati zvatinofanirwa kuita ndezvekuona kuti stadium yakagadzirwa zvakanaka kuti ive a big stadium. And since it has the name of a hero, we should make it a spectacular one.

President Mugabe said he would like to lead the campaign to see Gwanzura’s legacy continuing through the upgrading of the stadium whose construction was initiated by the late national hero and his brother Phanuel.