Former Bulawayo provincial minister Angeline Masuku
declared that she too must not be buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare
after the Zanu-PF politburo initially turned down a request to have Misheck
Velaphi Ncube declared a national hero, ZimLive reported.
The politburo had initially declared Ncube a liberation war
hero to be accorded a state-assisted funeral, and the party's secretary for
administration Obert Mpofu had been sent to convey the message.
But an emergency meeting at the party's provincial HQ at
Davies Hall in Bulawayo on Friday ended with a delegation being sent to Harare
to make the case to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, two officials briefed on the
meeting confirmed.
Ncube, who died on April 29 from diabetes at the age of 82
and was one of the pioneer ZIPRA fighters during the 1970s independence war
after receiving military training in Egypt in 1962, was declared a national
hero on Saturday after Mnangagwa overruled the politburo, the officials said.
"Masuku was quite forceful at the meeting, saying that
if Ncube was not declared a national hero then she too and everyone else in the
room did not deserve the honour. She said Callistus Ncube, who was buried at
the National Heroes Acre also did not deserve to be there ahead of Ncube,"
one Zanu-PF official said.
"She was supported by central committee member Joseph
Tshuma and others who said the denial of national hero status to Ncube
reflected a skewed understanding of the liberation history, with only former
ZANLA combatants considered fit for the honour."
Zanu-PF politburo member, Munyaradzi Machacha, who was
appointed by Mnangagwa to oversee the restructuring of the party in Bulawayo,
was so alarmed by the strong objections among ex-ZAPU officials that he called
Mnangagwa during the meeting to tell him that "people are angry down
here."
Mnangagwa said he
would meet a two-member delegation that travelled to Harare to see him. He told
the officials that he knew Ncube, and had sent him a personal message through
Bulawayo's provincial minister Judith Ncube during the Zimbabwe International
Trade Fair at the end of last month after learning that he was hospitalised.
Mnangagwa subsequently overruled the politburo and directed
officials to declare Ncube a national hero.
Speaking at the Ncube home in New Lobengula in Bulawayo on
Saturday, Zanu-PF politburo member Absalom Sikhosana said: "He was
involved at all levels of the liberation struggle. He was involved at all
levels of the political leadership. There is no reason whatsoever for denying
him that right (national hero declaration). That's the appropriate
consideration befitting a man of his calibre."
Ncube was the ZAPU administrator soon after independence in
1980 and was among top leaders arrested after the government allegedly
discovered arms caches at a farm owned by the party.
The arrests, which also saw the detention of late ZIPRA
commander Lookout Masuku and current ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa being charged
with treason, marked the beginning of the Gukurahundi massacres.
At the time of his death, Ncube was a member of the Zanu-PF
national consultative assembly.
Burial arrangements were yet to be announced on Sunday. zimlive
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