Buhera to host 44th Independence celebrations
MURAMBINDA Town Centre in Buhera District will be the place to be in April as the area has been chosen as the venue for this year’s 44th Independence Day celebrations and the Children’s Party.
This year’s celebrations will run under the theme ‘Zim@44: Unity, peace and development towards Vision 2030’.
The selection of Murambinda resonates well with the Second Republic’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind in the development agenda.
Besides having a chance to interact with the Presidium, the rural populace of Buhera and surrounding areas will have a chance to watch their favourite football teams, Dynamos and Highlanders, as they lock horns in the President’s Independence Day Trophy.
Manicaland’s top team, Manica Diamonds, will also lock horns with Simba Bhora of Mashonaland Central after the Children’s Party.
Buhera District is also expected to witness major infrastructural developments that come with the hosting of major national events.
Speaking during Tuesday’s post-Cabinet briefing, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere said: “Cabinet considered and approved the Memorandum on the update on preparations for the 2024 Independence Anniversary and Children’s Party Celebrations, which was presented by Vice President K.C.D Mohadi as the Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on State
Occasions and National Monuments. The nation is informed that the 2024 Independence Anniversary and Children’s Party Celebrations will be held in Manicaland Province.
“The nation is further advised that Murambinda B Secondary School will host the 2024 Independence Anniversary Celebrations. Murambinda A Primary School will host the Children’s Party, while Murambinda B Primary School will host the Independence Anniversary Gala.
“The nation is informed that the teams competing for the President’s Independence Trophy will be Highlanders and Dynamos football clubs, and that going forward, a team from the hosting province should compete with a team from the previous hosting province, with Manica Diamonds Football Club from Manicaland Province playing Simba Bhora Football Club from Mashonaland Central Province after the Children’s Party.”
In an interview, the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza said the province is ready to host the biggest ever national event in Buhera.
“We are very excited to be hosting this year’s Independence Day celebrations in Buhera. Buhera is known for hosting the biggest assembly point during the liberation war at Dzapasi. The venue of the celebrations is very symbolic and we want to urge all the people of Manicaland, including liberation war veterans, to throng the venue for this year’s celebrations in their thousands.
“The Independence Day torch will pass through the Butcher area in Rusape where thousands of Zimbabweans were killed and tortured during the liberation struggle, then Dzapasi Assembly Point and finally Murambinda B Secondary School, the venue for the celebrations,” he said.
Minister Mugadza said they have already activated all the organising committees to ensure that everything will be in place well before April 18.
“We have already hit the ground running. All the necessary committees are now in place. We want to have the biggest celebrations in the history of Independence Day commemorations in the country. We are expecting a bumper crowd from Manicaland and surrounding provinces.
“We are appealing to the people of Manicaland to come out in their thousands and dwarf the crowds we are expecting from other provinces. Besides hosting the whole country, we are expecting visitors from our sister liberation movements and this is the chance for Manicaland to shine.
“There will be no district celebrations in Manicaland this year, hence all roads will be leading to Buhera. We want to change the face of Buhera,” said Minister Mugadza.
Minister Mugadza said measures have been put in place to keep cholera at bay.
“We are happy that intervention measures put in place by Government and supporting stakeholders are now bearing fruits as cholera cases are drastically going down in Buhera. In fact, the outbreak is now under control.
“We have Murambinda Mission Hospital and other clinics that will be fully equipped to attend to any suspected cholera cases. A significant budget has also been put in place to address all Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) aspects,” said Minister Mugadza.
Buhera’s selection for the mega celebrations is a befitting honour as the district had the biggest assembly point during the liberation war ceasefire at Dzapasi in 1979.
The then ZANLA Commander and national hero, Cde Solomon Mujuru, and the Rhodesian Army Commander, Mr Bertie Barnard, ceremoniously shook hands at Dzapasi as the British flag was lowered and the Zimbabwean flag was hoisted in February 1980 to signal the beginning of Zimbabwe’s independence.
Thus, the military supremacy of the late Rhodesian prime minister, Mr Ian Smith’s army was formally relinquished at Dzapasi.
The nucleus of the assembly point was at Chiurwi Primary School which had been closed since July 1976 as the war of liberation intensified.
With an abandoned school, an airstrip and a good road network, Dzapasi was an ideal location for an assembly point.
During the liberation war, the Rhodesian forces had built the gravel airstrip to serve their base at Dzapasi, then known as Fox Trot, a counter insurgency base within the Rhodesian Forces’ Operation Thrasher Front.
For this reason, Dzapasi area experienced a number of fierce battles between freedom fighters and Rhodesian forces during the armed struggle.