ZANU PF Manicaland provincial chairperson John Mvundura yesterday said his executive was going to write to the politburo seeking the posthumous conferment of national hero status to the late party founding member Washington Malianga.
PAIDAMOYO MUZULU SENIOR REPORTER
Mvundura told NewsDay at the burial of Malianga at Warren Hills cemetery in Harare that the request would be made soon.
Malianga, a former Zanu PF spokesperson, died on Sunday at the age of 88 and received a State-assisted funeral.
“We are going to write and recommend to the politburo that Malianga should be declared posthumously a national hero or at least a liberation war hero,” Mvundura said.
“Malianga was very instrumental to the war cause in Zambia and the Dare reChimurenga during the liberation struggle.”
The veteran nationalist started his political career in the 1960s when he joined the National Democratic Party (NDP), and later founded Zapu before he subsequently moved to form Zanu with others after the split of the former.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo, in his graveside speech, bemoaned the ruling party’s failure to properly document the liberation struggle history and its actors.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“The party should do more for its people while they are alive and we should also write the history of liberation heroes while they are still alive,” Gumbo said.
Malianga remained reclusive politically after Independence in 1980 amid speculation that his failed bid to contest President Robert Mugabe for the post of Zanu secretary-general in 1973 had precipitated his withdrawal from politics.
Few top Zanu PF officials, among them secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa, Gumbo and Mvundura, attended the burial.
Malianga becomes the second high-ranking Zanu PF cadre who has been controversially denied hero status in the past month despite his immense contribution to the liberation struggle.
Former deputy Health minister Edward Munatsireyi Pswarayi was buried at his Tondori Farm in Beatrice despite his well-documented contribution to the struggle. The party argued that he failed to meet the selection criteria because he had not been consistent.
