President fulfils promise made in 2000

WHEN Zanu founding father, the late Cde Ndabaningi Sithole died in November 2000, frantic efforts to have him declared a national hero hit a brickwall as the First Republic flatly refused to grant him the highest honour, however, President Mnangagwa, then a minister, promised to relook at the matter at the right time.

Now, 22 years later, the late nationalist has been granted posthumous national hero status by the Second Republic, which is determined to confront and correct the past.

One man who was always close to the late Cde Sithole is Cde Wilson Khumbula, who has now been appointed to the Zanu PF Central Committee.

In an interview, Cde Khumbula described how he, the Sithole family and church impressed on the First Republic to have his political godfather declared a national hero, but without success. However, one man listened to the Sithole family, their intonations, and promised that one day, at the right time, history would rightfully honour its heroes.

“I am overwhelmed with emotion that the Reverend has been declared a national. Following his death three people were asked to request for his hero status, but that was denied. The records are there at the Zanu PF headquarters and I represented the party as the acting president, we wrote to the party to have Rev Sithole declared a national hero but that failed to come through”.

Even the Sithole family, that had been orphaned as their father went to join the liberation struggle, tried to coax the powers that were to have the Rev accorded the honour befitting his status as a leading light during the liberation struggle, again that came to naught.

“The brother of the late Rev Sithole also wrote another letter asking the party to consider the late as a national hero. The church also wrote another letter, but all the three requests were turned down,” said Cde Khumbula.

However, one man was prepared to listen, probably because when he went overseas for military training during the liberation struggle he had been dispatched by Cde Sithole as Zanu president.

“Cde Mnangagwa knows Rev Sithole more than Cde Mugabe and Cde Mnangagwa is one of those first guerrillas to be taken to China by Cde Sithole when Zanu and ZAPU split, so Cde Mnangagwa was the right person to approach, however, he could not take a decision because he was still under somebody.