Declare Chanetsa national hero: Mash West
ZANU-PF Mashonaland West Province has recommended that veteran politician and nationalist Cde Peter Chanetsa, who died on Monday morning, be declared a national hero.
Cde Chanetsa was the first black Government chief of protocol and former Mashonaland West Governor and Resident Minister.
The ZANU-PF Central Committee member succumbed to heart failure at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. He was 70. ZANU-PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Cde Ephraim Chengeta yesterday said the province had written to the Politburo requesting that Cde Chanetsa be accorded national hero status.
“We have consulted the provincial leadership, and we have seen it fit that he deserves to be declared a national hero considering the work he did for the party.
“As per procedure, we have written to the Politburo recommending that he be honoured that way. His works speak volumes of how dedicated he was in serving the party and the nation at large.”
In a letter to ZANU-PF secretary for Administration Cde Ignatius Chombo, Mashonaland West Province said in part: “Mashonaland West provincial executive do hereby request you to accord him with national liberation war hero status considering his immense contribution during and after the liberation struggle.”
The province attached Cde Chanetsa’s curriculum vitae detailing his work in the party and Government.
Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday visited the Chanetsa family’s Borrowdale, Harare, home to pay his condolences.
He was accompanied by service chiefs, led by the Commander Defence Forces General Constantino Chiwenga.
Acting President Mnangagwa said the party leadership, led by President Mugabe, would be consulted before a decision is taken on Cde Chanetsa’s hero status.
“I tried talking to the President this morning and will talk to him again later today,” he said.
“He is in China. I saw in the papers that the province is requesting something and we will pass on the message to our leader who will give us guidance.
“But, we know that he is someone we have worked with and I hope the province has given a detailed history of how it was working with Cde Chanetsa. (Home Affairs Minister) Cde Ignatius Chombo who handles these issues is away in the Middle East and he will be represented by Cde Joseph Made. We will notify you of what we would
have agreed on.”
Acting President Mnangagwa said he worked with Cde Chanetsa for a long time, having first met him in Tanzania in 1977.
“I heard about his death on television last night (Monday night) and was surprised because during the last Central Committee meeting last month, he was present,” he said.
“After the meeting, he held me by the hand and said he was not well and wanted to see me. I told him to see me after the holidays.
“I met him in 1977 in Tanzania. When we went for political meetings with Cde Julius Nyerere (Tanzania’s founding President) he was the one who welcomed us, as our protocol officer there. When we went for the Lancaster House talks he was also our protocol officer and at Independence, he was the first protocol officer in the then Prime Minister’s Office,” said Acting President Mnangagwa.
He added: “I also worked in that office and we worked together for a long time. He then left and became Governor in Mashonaland West. He has a long history as we worked together in the party and Government. He once went to Namibia and when he came back, I took his wife, a lawyer by profession and made her our ombudswoman.
She retired when we changed our Constitution and now the work she used to do is now being done by the Human Rights Commission.”
“There is no single day when Peter left the party. He was there always and at the time of his death, he was a Central Committee member.
“On death, everyone has his time and I am regretting that I should have talked to him during the Central Committee meeting. Maybe, he had something to say.
“Just because he had become a father and brother to everyone, we will support the wife and the family,” Acting President Mnangagwa said.
Cde Chanetsa’s wife, Beatrice said Cde Chanetsa’s health deteriorated towards the Christmas holidays.
She said although her husband was under diabetes and high blood pressure treatment, they never foresaw death.
Mrs Chanetsa said he was discharged from hospital on Saturday night, but was readmitted the following day after his health worsened.
“It happened so suddenly. As a family, we did not see death coming,” she said. “We saw it as an illness that would be managed. The nurses had also told us that his kidneys were not functioning well and further tests were supposed to be done today (yesterday). My child had suggested that after the doctors had done the tests, he would take him to South Africa for dialysis. He came from South Africa not knowing he was coming to bury his father.”
Cde Chanetsa was the first black chief of protocol at Independence before being appointed Mashonaland West Resident Minister and Governor in 1996.
During his tenure as Governor, Cde Chanetsa oversaw the crunch phase of the land reform programme in his province in the early 2000s. He retired from that post in 2003. Apart from being a politician and farmer, Cde Chanetsa had interests in safari and fishing businesses.
Born on July 15, 1946 in Chinhoyi, Cde Chanetsa first had his education in that area before proceeding to Mabvuku in the then Salisbury.
He then went to Mwanza, Tanzania where he later hooked up with other locals and received military training.
He came back to Zimbabwe at Independence in 1980.
He is survived by wife Beatrice and three children.
Mourners are gathered at Number 6 Iona Close Borrowdale.
Meanwhile, the ZANU-PF Mashonaland West leadership has described Cde Chanetsa as a principled man whose passion was to ensure continued ZANU-PF rule.
Mashonaland West Provincial Minister of State Cde Faber Chidarikire, said the province had been robbed of a hard-working man.
“We worked together right from the 80s in the party ( ZANU-PF) where he would always strive to strengthen the party,” said Cde Chidarikire.
“As governor, he contributed a lot in the building of schools in remote areas which never had any schools. He was always ready to help with ideas.”
Kadoma businessman and ZANU-PF National Consultative Assembly member Cde Jimayi Muduvuri said, Cde Chanetsa had the history of the party and country at his fingertips.
“We worked together well in the Central Committee when he was governor. He had a passion to see the province develop and to see the party united. One thing he was unequivocal about was the need for the province to lead by example as the cradle which nestled President Mugabe,” he said.