COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT ON WELSHMAN MABHENA’S HERO STATUS

COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT ON WELSHMAN MABHENA’S HERO STATUS



PRESS STATEMENT: 07 OCTOBER 2010



Communities Point would like to take this opportunity to welcome the news that the late nationalist, former Matabeleland North Governor and former ZAPU Secretary General Welshman Mabhena has been bestowed the befitting status of national hero.

Zimbabweans such as the late Welshman Mabhena who selflessly sacrificed many years of their own freedom, and had to be forced to be away from their families as they served long prison terms for the independence of their country are really unique in that they give they put other people first in pursuit of lasting change. They deserve the highest recognition and accolade that the country can give and the hero status is one such befitting recognition. However the sacrifices of nationalists and liberation combatants both departed and alive will be in vain if people are still dying, killed because they hold political views different from the ruling party and maimed, injured for daring to oppose in a country that is supposed to be free.

Every time that a death of such icons as the late Mabhena happens we are reminded once again of the dangers those who fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe had to go through. They were fighting a potent force, very skilled, well-equipped and manned mainly by their white compatriots who were unfortunately pursuing a racist agenda that was supposed to have been buried with the end of the Second World War. They were not fighting UDI but they were fighting racism, which is an evil that can never be tolerated in modern societies. They were fighting the closure of democracy, the silencing of the freedoms of assembly, worship, expression and speech. They were fighting for the rights to union action as labour and they were fighting for an access to education that was not fettered on the basis of their skin colour. They were fighting for the right to free movement, property rights, right to ownership of land again not based on skin colour. They fought prejudice of any form.

It is unfortunate that under ZANU PF the same prejudices do exist, making some people wonder why we even call ourselves independent. Communities Point still believes in our independence and still acknowledges the role played by nationalists and liberation combatants because there is nothing worse than the racist regime of Ian Smith. But what we do not understand is why ZANU PF behaved like an opposition party from the time they were in power and never at anytime tried to adopt to the fact that they were the ruling party, in charge of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that called for unity, equality, prosperity and an end to the tribal and racial prejudices that had existed under Ian Smith. We still hope that there will be an end to prejudice against any Zimbabwean black, white, Asian etc.

We are also worried that ZANU PF still has the sole mandate to choose who goes to Heroes Acre. We believe and maintain that Border Gezi, Elliot Manyika and Cain Nkala should never have been buried there. They turned against their own defenceless brothers and sisters and it seems they were rewarded for that. We also believe that icons such as Reverend Sithole, who started the armed struggle against the apartheid of Ian Douglas Smith, Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa who led Zimbabweans for NIMAR [No Independence before Majority Rule] and blocked the international recognition of apartheid Rhodesia and Chief Khayisa Ndiweni should all have been recognised as heroes. Yes all of them later went into the infamous Zimbabwe-Rhodesia which we think was a very wrong move especially because it failed to end the war and there were further massacres subsequent to that, it later proved that even the Patriotic Front would do the same by accepting 20 whites-only seats in 1980, an endorsement by the then PM Robert Mugabe of the supremacist agenda of Ian Smith.

Because of these discrepancies it is clear a new regime in determining heroes must be put in place. We suggest that there be a commission or collegiate of former leaders of ZANLA and ZIPRA, non-partisan and prominent historians, non-partisan and prominent writers such as Chenjerai Hove, non-partisan and prominent clerics, paramount chiefs of all the tribes in Zimbabwe and credible judges or retired judges to have the sole responsibility for conferring hero status.



CHAIRMAN: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA

mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413