Only Mugabe-ites Can Be "National Heroes"

I will bet that Marufu will be declared a national hero - by virtue of his sister being Mugabe's wife - but no such consideration was given to the MDC’s Gibson Sibanda...

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"President Robert Mugabe’s brother in law, Reward Marufu has died.

He is believed to have died at an undisclosed location on Tuesday evening after a long illness.

His death, comes a few weeks after Mugabe lost his sister Sabina after a long illness. As if this is not enough, Mugabe’s remaining sister, Bridgette is said to be bed ridden at Parirenyatwa Hospital from an undisclosed illness.

Marufu, a brother to first lady Grace, was a controversial figure in Zimbabwean politics and made headlines in the 90s when he claimed huge sums of money from the War Victims Compensation fund arguing that he had been disabled during the liberation struggle.

He claimed that he was 95 percent disabled and benefited from the fund.

In 1999, Marufu, a former ZANLA combatant, was recalled home from a diplomatic posting in Canada after the Canadian police raided his home over charges of severely assaulting his daughter.

A top security official told Radio VOP Wednesday that Marufu had been suffering from illness for many years."

A 95% disability and he still held a diplomatic posting? How did he do that if he was so terribly afflicted? How was he supposed to have assaulted his daughter if he was so disabled?

But he will probably be named a national hero, then we will have a large funeral at the National Heroes' Acre and Mugabe will use the occasion to rip into the West once again - just as he did a few weeks ago at his own sister's burial at the ZANU PF shrine.

And questions will remain unanswered as to why Grace’s brother is a hero, but Gibson Sibanda is not. Is he not a hero because he left ZANU PF to join the MDC?

Do his activities within ZANU PF before the advent of the MDC count for nothing?

"The smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which is closer to ZANU PF has blasted President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party for failing to accord their late party Vice President Gibson Sibanda a national heroes status despite writing a letter supporting Sibanda's contributions to Zimbabwe.

Addressing a press conference in Harare, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said his party tried in vain to convince Mugabe and his party to soften up and declare Sibanda a national hero.

"We have since received communication from Dr Isiah Sibanda who is the chief secretary in Cabinet and also from Minister Didymus Mutasa who is the Minister in the President’s Office saying that the ZANU PF politburo has decided that Gibson Sibanda is not worthy of being declared a national hero, instead they have taken a position where he has been accorded a state assisted funeral status," Mutambara said."

It is apparent that Mugabe and his trusted enclave are intent on the Nation Hero status being an exclusive ZANU PF achievement. This will anger not only the members of other political parties in Zimbabwe, but also the population as a whole.

Hero status is something that can be achieved and bestowed upon people who are not Mugabe oriented. But Mugabe obviously believed otherwise.

"We do not recognise the ZANU PF politburo as an authority in determining who becomes a national hero, so we reject... the decision by the ZANU PF politburo that Gibson Sibanda is not a national hero.

"Robert Mugabe and his party have no authority and locus standi in this country to determine who is a hero and who is not a hero. So we reject the message from Mutasa, we reject the message from Mutasa," Mutambara said."

The sad truth of the matter is that, as much as MDC-M rejects Mutasa's message, the decision that Sibanda does not join the ranks of the national heroes buried at the national shrine, there is no way that ZANU PF will back down.

And with the death of Reward Marufu, who will probably be declared a national hero just because of his relationship as sister to Mugabe's wife, will rub salt into the wound.

Close as the MDC-M may be to Mugabe, the aged leader is still intent not to allow a mixing of the political thinking when it comes to hero status.

"Mutambara said he and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wrote two letters respectively to Mugabe to convince him that Sibanda deserved to be laid to rest at the national heroes acre.

"In so far as we are concerned as a political party, Gibson Sibanda is a national hero, if there is any definition of a hero either by way of what you get from literature or what you get from political interpretation this is an epitome of heroism that we are celebrating today," Mutambara told journalists.

"As a political party our position is that Gibson Sibanda deserves to be accorded national hero status. Consequently as a party we wrote to President Mugabe as head of state to expeditiously move towards declaring Gibson Sibanda as a national hero, we did that as a party."

Burial arrangements for Sibanda, who died aged 66 on Monday have not yet been finalised. The founding Vice President of the united Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former welfare secretary of ZAPU was also the Minister of State responsible for national healing and reconciliation.

Mugabe and ZANU PF's politburo have clashed with other political parties over the selection of who should be laid at the national shrine. The issue is one of the outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). A board consisting of political parties, government and civil society is to be set to decide who is a national hero."

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man