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Samkange family bitter over hero status

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ZVIMBA — The family of the late former Mashonaland West provincial governor and Zanu PF central committee member Nelson Samkange says it is not happy with the decision by the party leadership to deny him national hero status.

ZVIMBA — The family of the late former Mashonaland West provincial governor and Zanu PF central committee member Nelson Samkange says it is not happy with the decision by the party leadership to deny him national hero status.

By Own Correspondent

Samkange, who died late last month from breathing complications, was declared a liberation war hero.

This resulted in the family opting to bury the former governor at their rural village in Zvimba at the weekend. President Robert Mugabe attended the burial.

In his graveside eulogy before the burial on Saturday, the late governor’s brother, Dr Christopher Samkange said his brother had rendered immense humanitarian and material assistance to guerillas who waged the war of liberation against the colonial regime, and, therefore deserved the highest recognition.

“Although my brother escaped the wrath of the former white colonialists by skipping to Zambia in a police van and then later moving to Britain to take up various assignments, he never reneged on giving support to the cause to liberate thiscountry. “He would mobilise footwear for the comrades who were in the bush. He also sourced food for them. Our family had, therefore, requested that my brother be accorded national hero status, but we heard he had only been given liberation hero status,” Dr Samkange said. Mugabe as well as Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairman John Mafa, who also addressed the mourners, were at pains to explain why the late governor was not conferred national hero status.

Mugabe said: “He was rejected by the people when he lost the last elections. Therefore, there was no way I could elevate him. It doesn’t matter whether one is a Gushungo (Mugabe’s totem which he shared with the late former governor), if the people reject you then that’s it.

“He had gotten a plum farm at Rukoba which he again failed to fully utilise. Maybe farming was not his calling and probably the frustration over the poor productivity at his farm could have killed him. He certainly needed a manager.”