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Walter Nyamukondiwa Chinhoyi Bureau
The establishment of a shrine at the Battle of Chinhoyi site will begin next week, a Cabinet minister has said.

Speaking in Chinhoyi at the weekend, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira said Government has joined forces with the ruling Zanu-PF to identify and erect shrines at historical liberation war sites across the country.

The current development will mean the Provincial Heroes Acre would be shifted slightly from the current location, where more than 50 provincial heroes and heroines have been interred.

Construction at the Battle of Chinhoyi site will begin next week after completion of a site validation exercise.

Minister Mupfumira said the project will help preserve the country’s liberation heritage.

“People talk about the seven heroes, but there is nothing there to show or highlight something of such significance,” she said. “Our heroes who fought in the Second Chimurenga died across the Manyame River, but there is nothing on the site.”

Minister Mupfumira said the seven heroes who fired the first shots that kick-started the liberation war are not buried properly.

“We are coming next week on Thursday as Government and the ruling Zanu-PF party to start the process of erecting a monument and a proper Heroes Acre,” she said.

She said the process will culminate in the reburial of the seven heroes, while also positioning the site as a tourist attraction.

Similar sites are also being identified and set up across Zimbabwe.

Zanu-PF director for tourism and environment Cde Stewart Mutizwa said Government’s programme dovetailed with the party’s drive to put shrines at liberation historical sites across the country.

“As secretaries for environment and tourism, it was one of our resolutions at the secretaries’ workshop held in Hwange in 2017,” he said.

“We agreed that we are going to enshrine about 10 sites across the country within one  year.”

Cde Mutizwa said Zanu-PF participated in the formulation of the national tourism strategy, which seeks to package all sites of liberation historical significance into attractive tourist sites.

The party’s secretaries for environment and tourism, he said, should spearhead programmes that promote domestic tourism and also help in protecting the environment.