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Midlands Bureau

President Mnangagwa on Monday went down memory lane passing through Monomotapa Hall in Mutapa suburb where the first Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) congress was held in 1964.

Speaking after touring the city of Gweru to assess compliance with Government’s lockdown directive, the President said 50 years have since passed following the first Zanu congress, but he still vividly remembers the event.

Zanu’s first congress was held from May 21 to 24 when the party was becoming a visible political entity.

Ndabaningi Sithole was elected president and the former President Robert Mugabe secretary-general.

Zanu was subsequently banned in the same year.

“The thought of the events which transpired on May 24, 1964 feels like it’s just yesterday, but it has been many years. It has been over 50 years. We first went to Mambo and we passed through Mutapa and we saw the Monomotapa Hall (popularly known as Mutapa hall).

“On May 24, 1964, we had just arrived from training in China and we were able to slip in to attend the first congress of Zanu at that hall,” recalled President Mnangagwa.

“I remember that this is where Ndabaningi Sithole was elected president, Leopold Takawira vice president, Herbert Chitepo national chairperson, Mugabe secretary-general and Morris Nyagumbo national organising secretary, deputised by Simon Muzenda.

“Enos Nkala was elected treasurer, Simpson Mtambanengwe secretary for international relations, I think deputised by Trynos Makombe and so on and so on.”

He said they also passed through Mambo Secondary School where Cde Mugabe also taught in 1954.

“There is a lot of history associated with Gweru. Mugabe also taught at Mambo Secondary School and we passed by the school. There was also the first black mayor of Gweru, Patrick Kombayi in this city so it has a lot of memories,” said President Mnangagwa.

With the country celebrating 40 years of independence on April 18, President Mnangagwa said the tour of Gweru had brought him a lot of memories.

“Yes, I am feeling a lot of nostalgia, but now it’s history that I have to go back to again. It’s a lot of years, over 50 years since we were here in Gweru and I can still remember events as they unfolded. Today we are an independent country. At that time, it was Rhodesia and we were busy planning how to remove Ian Smith’s government and those were the initial stages of our armed struggle when we were recruiting young people for military training,” he said.

Mutapa Hall looks like it did way back in 1964, just a rectangular building which African residents of the township of the same name used as the venue for viewing bioscope shows.

It is a place where important decisions that shaped Zimbabwe’s history were made.

Mutapa Hall symbolised not only all that was wrong with the colonial set up, but also the fighting spirit that was to shape the liberation war.

President Mnangagwa said the empty streets that greeted him when he toured Mkoba, Senga, Mambo and Ascot suburbs in Gweru demonstrated high compliance levels by citizens with Government’s directive for them to stay home and prevent the spread of Covid-19.

He said even his Government ministers who were classified under the non-essential personnel, were observing the lockdown.

The President made the remarks after his unannounced tour of Gweru and added that he would make surprise visits across the country during the lockdown days.

“I’m not announcing my visits like I do during the national clean up days. Even my ministers are also complying with the directive to stay at home.

“They are not with me or following me. I just wake up and decide where to go and only a few people will know about my visits,” he said.