Zimpapers Logo

The Herald, 12 April 2016

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 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.

He was accompanied by service chiefs, among them Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantino 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.

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. 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 . . .

“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.” 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.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

The brave men and women buried at the National Heroes Acre and provincial heroes’ shrines, fought settler colonialists and survived enemy bullets and other forms of danger..

So deadly is Covid-19 that a number of heroes and heroines are succumbing to it. Meanwhile, the daily infection and mortality rates, continue to grow, while the full impact of vaccines that is  being administered in some countries will take time realise.

Due to Covid-19, there is a new normal in how we pay our last respects and bury the dead:

1. There are strict Covid-19 protocols that should be followed.
2. Crowds are deemed super spreaders. Funeral gatherings are therefore limited to 30 mourners.
3. All Covid-19 preventative guidelines to be strictly adhered to: masking up, social distancing, sanitisation, hand washing and no hand shaking.
4. No night vigils and no body viewing. The body is taken from the mortuary to the gravesite, with health personnel supervising every step.