Former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe (95), who died in
Singapore early yesterday morning, has been declared a national hero. President
Mnangagwa — who cut short his trip to South Africa where he was attending the
World Economic Forum (WEF) — announced the national hero status while
addressing the media at State House in Harare yesterday evening.
Earlier, the ruling Zanu-PF had met at an extraordinary
session at the party’s headquarters in Harare to deliberate on the former
leader’s status.
“Zanu-PF, which the late departed helped found, has met and
accorded him national hero status which he earned and richly deserves,”
eulogised President Mnangagwa.
“Let me also register the gratitude of Government and the
entire nation to the Government and people of the Republic of Singapore for the
unmatched hospitality and medical care they extended to our leader up to the
very end.
“In particular, we are most grateful to the team of medical
experts and support staff which cared for him with such great diligence,
dedication and compassion. They did all they could up to the very end.”
He also declared days of national mourning until the former
President’s burial. “As we await the arrival of the remains of our dear
departed icon, we pray that the good Lord grant him mercies, putting his dear
soul to eternal rest.
“We as Zimbabweans declare days of mourning of our leader
until he is buried,” he said.
The President added that the death of former President
Mugabe had left a void in the nation and a legacy of adherence to the rights of
Africans.
“A veteran nationalist and a doughty pan-Africanist
fighter, Cde Mugabe bequeaths rich and indelible legacy of tenacious adherence
to principle on the collective rights of Africa and Africans in general, and in
particular, the rights of the people of Zimbabwe for whom he gave his all to
help free.
“In his life and political career met and melded key
phases, moods and shifts in the story of our national struggle and quest for
freedom and statehood including the tragedies, pains and rigours which
underwrote that epic story.
“Incarcerated for 11 years in settler colonial prisons he,
alongside fellow nationalists who include the late Father Zimbabwe Cde Joshua
Nkomo, remained unbowed and resolute, eventually escaping from the then
Rhodesia in 1974 in order to lead and guide the resumption and escalation of
our war of liberation at a time of its tragic setbacks and paralysis,” said
President Mnangagwa.
He said under former President Mugabe, the struggle
regained momentum and consolidated the Patriotic Front into a formidable
coordinated national liberation movement that waged a gruelling and protracted
struggle in the Southern Africa region.
President Mnangagwa added that the freedom being enjoyed in
the country since 1980, was because of sacrifices of a generation of
nationalists and freedom fighters pre-dating the 1960s, who included the late
Cde Mugabe.
“A great teacher and mentor, the bitterness of long spells
in incarceration and anguish of a brutal and bitter war, never extinguished Cde
Mugabe’s forgiving inner humanity,” said President Mnangagwa.
“That humanity shone and undiminished throughout that season
of war and forcefully asserted itself by way of the signature policy of
national reconciliation on which our whole Statehood was founded and built.
Through that policy of forgiveness Southern African politics took a definitive
shift towards a just, post-colonial multiracial harmony, which would be
replicated elsewhere in our region and beyond.
“He thus wrote a lasting page on nation-building and
statecraft for the world, making him stand out as such a remarkable statesman
of our century.”
President Mnangagwa said the late former President would
also be remembered for post-independence transformations in areas of rights,
education and social services for the hitherto marginalised black Zimbabweans
including the bold and historic land reform programme.
“Through this programme, indigenous Zimbabweans regained
their long denied land rights, to complete their sovereignty. For that he was
especially vilified, shunned and punished by those who stood to lose from an
end to colonial ‘rights’ and from a just reassertion of African rights.
“With characteristic defiance, he stood firm and undaunted,
resolutely pressing on with the land reform programme to completion, all
against formidable odds which included punitive sanctions and other reprisals
that followed and which still dog us to this day.
“Today Zimbabwe’s land question, itself a principal
grievance of our struggle, stands fully and irrevocably addressed and resolved.
History will remember him for this bold move,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said Government remained committed to
carry forward former President Mugabe’s aspirations.
“As we mourn the passing on of our commander, liberator,
founder and leader, we remain determined to carry forward the transformation so
fervently desired, including the transformation, including protecting and
defending the gains of the struggle for which he made huge sacrifices.
“On the bedrock and solid foundation for the First Republic
which he moulded as its leader, we today recover and grow our economy, brick by
brick until his lifelong vision of an empowered people is realised,” said
President Mnangagwa.
The President extended his “deepest, heartfelt condolences
to former First Lady Grace Mugabe, the Mugabe family and the children “on this
their saddest loss”.
“Amai Mugabe stood by her husband to the very end, thus
imparting to our nation a lasting lesson on devout love and care. For that we
deeply thank her, as we join her in the grief and loss and bereavement which is
also ours to feel and bear,” he said. Herald
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