BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
THE family of the late Zipra commander Abraham Dumezweni Nkiwane says the veteran nationalist did not want to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week declared Nkiwane a national hero.
The message was delivered to the family at their Umguza home by Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, paving the way for his burial at the national shrine in Harare.
Nkiwane’s family, however, turned down the request saying the liberation struggle pioneer never wanted his remains to be interred at the national shrine or politicians to preside over his funeral.
Nkiwane died aged 93 at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) due to prostate cancer.
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“As a family, we say, please tell the president we are grateful for the honour.
“However, our father told us he wants peace at his burial. As a liberator, he also prepared for his death.
“As such, we have one request as a family which is his wish, if allowed, to be buried at his farm by his kraal here or at Solusi,” family spokesperson Fairchild Mhlophe said.
“He also named the pastors that he wished to preside over his funeral. As a family we saw it fit to honour his first wish.
“We are not against our elders (government and Zanu PF) but we humbly ask with a pure heart to honour his wish.
“We ask that you pass this message to the leadership, and express our humble request for his request to be granted.”
Former president Robert Mugabe, who often denied deserving hero and heroine status to fallen liberation war heroes, also refused to be buried at the National Heroes Acre where a number of questionable characters lie buried at the national shrine.
Mugabe often insisted that only Zanu PF had the sole responsibility of naming heroes and heroines, even going to the extent of telling the opposition and critics to construct their own shrine.
The late Thenjiwe Lesabe, who died aged 79 in February 2011, is one such heroine that Mugabe denied a heroine status on grounds that she had defected to Zapu. Instead, she was given a state assisted burial and was interred at her Fort Rixon farm in Insiza, Matabeleland South province.
Mpofu and Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister Richard Moyo begrudgingly accepted Nkiwane’s family request not to bury the veteran nationalist at the Heroes Acre.
“This is a tough task but we will follow his wishes, and that of the family,” Mpofu said.
“However as a nation, we have our own wishes too, and that he be buried alongside other heroes in Harare.
“His national hero status will not change. Only the burial place will change,” Mpofu said.
The late Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa also refused to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
He was buried at his eManxeleni rural home in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North province.
According to Zapu and Zpra, distortions have led to failure by the government to recognise a number of its unsung heroes, some of whom are interred at the Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo.
Zapu spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa said they welcomed the stance by Nkiwane’s family.
“We are grateful to him and applaud his wisdom as he left behind clear instructions on where he wants to eternally rest,” Maphosa said.
“We, therefore, sincerely hope Mnangagwa and his government will not disrespect Cde Nkiwane by dragging his corpse to that defiled hill, against his wishes and bury him side by side and on the same day with Gukurahundi commander Edzayi Chimonyo.
“This is because Nkiwane is a victim of Gukurahundi and died without getting justice and closure for it simply because Mnangagwa and his Fifth Brigade accomplices who include Chimonyo evaded justice by avoiding all calls for resolution.
“We continue to demand closure and justice, even in death.
“If not in our lifetime, coming generations will get it.”