zanu-pf secretary for Security Cde Sydney Sekeramayi (left), national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo and the revolutionary party’s Manicaland provincial chairman Cde John Mvundura console national hero Cde Stanley Sakupwanya’s brother Naboth in Harare yesterday. — (Picture by Regis Nyandima)

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Stanley Urayayi Sakupwanya, who died at Parirenyatwa Hospital on Tuesday night, has been declared a national hero and will be buried at the National Heroes Acre on Sunday.
He was 75.

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Cde Sakupwanya was Zanu-PF secretary for Welfare for Disabled and Disadvantaged Persons.

Zanu-PF secretary for Security Cde Sydney Sekeramayi told mourners gathered at Cde Sakupwanya’s Highlands residence in Harare yesterday that the decision to accord him national hero status was befitting considering his contribution to the country’s liberation.

“His Excellency the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe has conferred national hero status on the late Cde Stanley Urayayi Sakupwanya who died on 2 July 2014 at Parirenyatwa Hospital,” he said.

Cde Sekeramayi said following the announcement of the hero status, Cde Sakupwanya’s funeral was now being taken over by the State.

He said the State would work with the Sakupwanya family until he was buried.

Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo told the mourners that the decision to accord Cde Sakupwanya national hero status was unanimous.

He said Cde Sakupwanya served the party exceptionally well and had remained consistent in the struggle against oppression.

“He served his party, the united Zanu-PF, with commitment and admirable conviction,” he said. “He remained consistent and persistent in the struggle against oppression, suppression and repression by the colonial settler regime until final victory.

“He was a cadre of exceptional intellectual capacity, a man of compound courage, an accomplished revolutionary, a man of purpose, an uncompromising son of the soil and indeed a man of destiny.”

In Cde Sakupwanya, Cde Khaya Moyo said, Zanu-PF had lost an ordained and dependable leader.

He said his contribution to Zanu-PF and service to the people would be sorely missed.

Cde Khaya Moyo said he visited Cde Sakupwanya in hospital last week and his situation had deteriorated.

Family spokesperson and brother to Cde Sakupwanya, Mr Naboth Sakupwanya, thanked Zanu-PF for according his brother national hero status.

“We want to express our utmost gratitude firstly to the First Secretary and President and the party itself for conferring this honourable status on our brother,” he said.

As a family, Mr Sakupwanya said, they had lost a fatherly figure and a pillar of strength.

Mr Sakupwanya said his brother had assisted a lot of people in the family and the extended family to excel in life.

“He has left a big void and it will be difficult to find someone who can fill the gap he has left,” he said.

A funeral parade will be held in Cde Sakupwanya’s honour at One Commando today before his body is taken to his rural home in Rusape. It will return to Harare on Saturday in readiness for burial on Sunday.

Cde Sakupwanya, just like other youths of his time, was derived to join the liberation struggle by colonial injustices.