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Masvingo Bureau

KwaVaMuzenda Heritage Site will get a major a facelift under a programme being spearheaded by the Friends of Joshua Trust.

The heritage site was built in memory of the late iconic Vice President Simon Vengesayi Muzenda, who died in September 2003.

It is located at his first residence during the formative years of the nationalist movement for independence in the late 1950s in Masvingo’s Mucheke A suburb.

The heritage site is now run-down owing to neglect and lack of security coupled with absence of buy-in from local residents who repeatedly defile the place.

Friends of Joshua Trust director Dr Rayban Sengwayo yesterday said plans were already in motion to rebuild the site.

He said the Muzenda family led by the late nationalist’s son Cde Tongai Muzenda and the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira were in support of the rehabilitation of the site.

“We have teamed up with the Muzenda family and other stakeholders to rebuild the heritage site because the late Vice President Muzenda was a key figure in the history of the struggle for independence in Zimbabwe.”

“Plans are afoot to erect a precast wall around the site to improve security and make sure that people do not stray there. Friends of Joshua Trust is spearheading the programme to revive the heritage site and bring up to a standard which matches the larger than life character of the late Vice President.”

The rehabilitation programme will entail adding more literature and paraphernalia associated with the late national hero who was affectionately called the “Soul of the Nation”.

“We have plans to add more literature, artefacts and other paraphernalia to do with the late Vice President. Before she passed on, the late VP’s wife and national heroine Amai Maud Muzenda left us more items that we feel can enrich the heritage site,” said Dr Sengwayo.

KwaVaMuzenda was built by Friends of Joshua Trust with assistance from the Great Zimbabwe University, which has a School (Simon Muzenda School of Culture and Heritage Studies) that was named after the late national hero.

The site also houses two huts, which he used to stay in while working as a carpenter in the late 1950s.

Government through the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority designated KwaVaMuzenda as a tourist attraction in honour of the late VP under the enshrinement programme.