By Sandra Mutsimba
Respect for national institutions and events and the participation in these national programs and events is core to the question of non-partisan respect for the country’s national heroes.

It is an issue recognised by all the parties in the ruling coalition and is enshrined in Article VIII Section 8.1 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).Since 1980, Zanu PF has monopolised the selection process and accorded hero status only to its party members in Zimbabwe. The criterion being used to accord hero status in Zimbabwe is questionable.

This process has been shrouded in secrecy with party structures and not government institutions solely determining who can benefit from this now thoroughly discredited status. Many of the so-called liberation heroes have a chequered history of violence and murder, demonstrating the opposite
of the ideals of the liberation struggle that Zanu PF so relentlessly harp on.

Zanu PF has declared itself heroes of this country and expects Zimbabweans to blindly honour them upon their death. My foot! Unimaginable! Yet this is the sorry case in Zimbabwe today. What has happened to former Zapu leaders, widows of the late so-called heroes and other former freedom fighters? They have been reduced to destitutes, their livelihoods totally destroyed. Because of cronyism so rampant in that dying party, they have been forced to blindly follow Zanu PF policies hook, line and sinker, and in that vein, destroying their individual credibility in the eyes of Zimbabweans.

The war veterans who murdered Patrick Nabanyama in Bulawayo, because of the partisan selection procedure set out by Zanu PF, have been accorded national hero status. The partisan decision making process used by Zanu PF is based on the discredited and backward notion of ‘one – party state’ that the party advocated for in the early 1980s and only fell through after vehement opposition from Edgar Tekere - the former Zanu PF -secretary general. The decision making process is based on Zanu PF structures (cells,wards and districts coordinating committees through to provinces and the central committee up to the politburo) who weigh eligibility on party activism and not contribution to national development.

As a result of this skewed decision making, since independence Zimbabwean heroes are associated with the archaic Zanu PF. And strict compliance and cheerleading is of paramount importance. The party has been quick to strip hero status to formerly ‘gallant’ sons who would have fallen foul with the former liberation party. Why was neither Ndabaningi Sithole nor Patrick Kombayi awarded hero status when they contributed incalculably to the liberation movement and later on to the democratization of the country of their birth?

Why are they not heroes? Could this mean that for one to be accorded national hero status, one needs to be a card carrying Zanu PF member? Whoever said Mbuya Nehanda or Sekuru Kaguvi had a Zanu PF membership card? No. These were Zimbabweans fighting universal freedom and democracy, as was the case with Tonderai Ndira and Lookout Masuku. They did not need a Zanu PF party card, for what is it worth, other than protection against unwarranted violence after all?

At the funeral of Lookout ‘Mafela’ Khalisabantu Vumindaba Masuku, on 12 April 1986, at the Lady Stanley cemetery, Dr Joshua Nkomo said: “He is not being buried at the Heroes’ acre. But they can’t take away his status as a hero. You don’t give a man the status of a hero. All you can do is recognise it. It is his. Yes, he can be forgotten temporarily by the state. But the young people who do research will one day unveil what Lookout has done.”

Dr Nkomo’s summation says it all. Once this process is subjected to party decision making process, as is the case on the selection of national heroes, then the whole credibility of the process is lost. Zanu PF may rant and rave and try to monopolise this important national event as is usual during this time of the year, but to what end? Do Zimbabweans ever notice this event anymore? No, not at all.

That is why Joshua Nkomo’s son can stand up today to tell the nation that his father did not wish to be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre. What the inclusive government needs to do is clearly define what a hero is.Set out an all–inclusive process for according hero status on Zimbabweans
regardless of whether they participated in the liberation struggle or not.

We cannot use participation in the liberation war as the only basis for achieving hero status, otherwise what shall happen when all freedom fighters are past their time on earth. Do we then close the Heroes Acre?

Since the formation of the MDC, the party has lost more than 10 000 cadres in the struggle for democracy; these are as much Zimbabwean heroes as any other before them. These men and women have been murdered by the so called Zanu PF heroes. Joseph Chinotimba has been gloating that he died for this country and must have already identified and engraved his spot at the National Heroes acre,yet we all know what he was up to in Buhera in June 2008.

If the existing selection process allows Zanu PF structures to exclusively plan, organise and run the heroes event, that would a breach of both the spirit and letter of the GPA, as it goes against the grain of the notion of nation rebuilding as purported by the national healing process currently being propelled by the parties in the inclusive government. There is merit in the MDC’s yester year position in refusing to participate in such partisan events until they begin to imbed the notion of inclusivity.

MDC heroes must be eligible for selection with ease. For starters, the core ministers of home affairs should be made responsible for this year’s event. Songs such as ‘Zimbabwe yakawuya neropa’ , cannot continue to be abused and be used to intimidate Zimbabweans and mobilise others to kill fellow
citizens as was the case with Talent Mabika and Chiminya in 2000 or Beta Chokururama, Sheperd Jani and Tonderai Ndira in 2008.

In any case, who said only politicians qualify to be national heroes? Gallant sons and daughters in sports, music, arts and business have equally lifted the national flag high by their achievements in their various disciplines. Do they need a Zanu PF card first so that they qualify to be heroes or heroines in
the country of their birth?

Sandra Mutsimba is an information officer in the Department of Information and Publicity in the MDC. She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it