‘Heroes Day not just a holiday, it means a lot’
As the nation gears to celebrate Heroes’ Day, The Herald’s Christopher Charamba (CC) sat down with Secretary for Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees, Retired Brigadier General Asher Tapfumaneyi (AT) to discuss the importance of the day and what it means to be a Zimbabwean hero.
CC: On Monday the nation will be celebrating Heroes’ Day. What is the significance of this day to the people of Zimbabwe, especially in this current time, 37 years after our Independence? AT: I want to start by saying that to many, particularly generations that are post the liberation struggle, Heroes Day might just sound like a holiday but this week, this August week is very significant in the history of the liberation struggle. As you may be aware, August 8 is the day when ZANU was formed back then in the ’60s, together with ZAPU which it broke away from. It then went on to carry the liberation struggle until the attainment of independence in
1980. Then we have the Nyadzonya massacre on August 9, 1976 where thousands of school going age children who were unarmed and untrained in a refugee camp were massacred by the Rhodesians in cold blood. So the National Heroes’ Day celebrates all the declared and undeclared fallen heroes of the liberation struggle. All those who died fighting for Zimbabwe are celebrated on that day. That’s the significance of National Heroes’ Day and we the living who survived some of these atrocities then take time to reminisce to relate with that past and to also feel back to those times when we buried our colleagues. CC: You mentioned that it’s to celebrate all heroes that perished and those who fought in the liberation struggle. There are different classes for heroes especially when they are buried; district, provincial and national, how is that status accorded and what are the differences in the different classes. AT: That status is accorded through Zanu-PF structures because Zanu-PF as you are aware is the union between ZAPU and ZANU from 22 December 1987 and prior to that there had always been the Patriotic Front. The war, if you want, going back to after 1975, was fought jointly at the strategic level under the Patriotic Front. All those talks Geneva, Malta and up to Lancaster were conducted jointly by ZANU and ZAPU under the Patriotic Front. After the upheavals of the early
1980s, the two parties then formally came together uniting the people of Zimbabwe across ethnic groups, across regions under the Unity Accord. So Heroes’ Day symbolises that unity, we then celebrate all those who passed on during the liberation struggle on the ZAPU side and on the ZANU side. CC: Can you give a bit more clarity on the specific differences between a district, provincial and national hero. AT: The status is given according to a person’s recognised contribution to the liberation struggle or after independence in the cause of Zimbabwe’s struggle. As you know the physical struggle of freedom, the liberation struggle, the fight, ended in 1980. We are now in the economic phase of our liberation so it continues, that’s why you see that some people who excelled after independence will be accorded national hero status and it’s entirely the prerogative of Zanu-PF. We as a ministry can make recommendations, but it’s up to the structures of the party to accord national hero status or provincial, liberation war or whatever. People have often asked why it is Zanu-PF that accords heroes’ status. Zanu-PF is the party that fought the liberation struggle, it’s the party that identifies and it’s the party that groomed the people who then fought and it knows the people who fought the liberation struggle, it’s got the institutional memory of the liberation struggle. That’s why it is the one that owns the national hero statuses. I think you heard the President at some point during the Con- stitution-making process, he said if there are other types of heroism that we want to celebrate as a people, we can start a different system. It’s a political issue that can be debated, but for people to challenge national or provincial or district heroes’ status based on the liberation struggle when they were not in the liberation struggle, it is wrong you see. This is heroes’ status we are talking about, this national Heroes’ Day is about the liberation struggle which ZANU-PF led, that’s why we are where we are. CC: With regards to the upkeep of these monuments where these heroes are buried, who is responsible for that? AT: It’s a shared responsibility between the Ministry of Local Government and National Museums and Monuments. As a ministry you know we have only been in existence for two years now since 2015, we too have an interest now in the maintenance of those shrines. I can share with the nation that for example we have just spent some money towards the Chimoio shrine in Mozambique. We are working with the National Museums and Monuments to make the Chimoio shrine representative of all the happenings on the ZANLA side in Mozambique then when we are done with Chimoio we will go to Freedom Camp in Zambia and do the same. We want to put up a permanent exhibition which depicts in pictorial format the history of the liberation struggle, the major events, the major milestones of the liberation struggle so that it becomes more or less like the liberation war tourism where people will go, be accommodated and spend a night maybe on that side reminiscing. They will also hear about the history because there will be curators there and narrators, orators who will tell the story. At Chimoio for example, as I speak we are building an entrance gate, a befitting structure and then we are also putting up a fence around the camp. There are 22 graves in and around Chimoio each one containing about 700 bodies who were massacred in one day, within a few hours. The place has got this eerie feeling, when you go there it’s not like a usual walk in the park, you feel it, you feel that there was death in large numbers. We are trying to dignify the place, to preserve it for posterity and also to document what happened. Locally, the National Heroes Acre is the centre and is well-looked after by the central government. The Provincial and District Heroes Acres, we are now carrying out interventions here and there to try and get partners and sponsors to make sure that we spruce up the places. We had a situation for example at Harare Provincial Heroes Acre where there are 440 graves now. Many of them had gone unmarked for a long time to the point where as memory is lost and people change offices, it becomes difficult to know who we buried there. Luckily the National Museums and Monuments have got a map of the graves with names and everything. So we are now working with Progressive Insurance, as part of their corporate social responsibility, to build concrete slabs on 400 of the 440 graves and put markings so that we don’t go back to the situation where the place is dilapidated. They are also going to be putting a wall. We are also working with the army who have given us 15 engineers, builders you would say, though in the army we call them engineers. They are the ones who are building the graves, led by a lieutenant colonel and a major who are now permanently there building the graves using materials that were supplied by Progressive Insurance. The other 40 were already done because they are of soldiers who are still covered by the army. So the army has put some tombstones already on the 40 graves. We are dealing with the 400 comrades who are not in the army. Now that there is a ministry, we are following up on these graves. Read full interview on www. herald.co.zw