Mugabe Dies: Accorded National Hero Status
07 SEP, 2019 - 00:09
Nduduzo Tshuma
Political Editor
Zimbabwe Chronicle
FORMER President, Robert Mugabe, who died in Singapore yesterday morning, has been declared a national hero and the Government has declared days of national mourning until his burial.
Cde Mugabe (95) was receiving medical treatment in the Asian country when he succumbed to an undisclosed illness.
Addressing journalists at State House in Harare following a Zanu-PF Politburo meeting at the party’s headquarters, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, said the death of Cde Mugabe leaves a big void in the nation.
“Zanu-PF, the party which the late departed helped found, has met and accorded him National Hero status which he earned and richly deserves.
“As we await the arrival of the remains of our dear departed icon, we pray that the good Lord grants him mercies, putting his dear soul to eternal rest. We as Zimbabweans declare days of mourning for our leader until he is buried,” said President Mnangagwa.
He paid tribute to the Government and people of Singapore for the hospitality and medical care they extended to Cde Mugabe 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,” said President Mnangagwa.
The President hailed former First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe for supporting her husband until he breathed his last.
“On behalf of our nation, that of my family and on my own behalf, I wish to express my deepest, heartfelt condolences to the Mugabe family, to Amai Grace Mugabe and the children especially, 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 of loss and bereavement which is also ours to feel and bear,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said the death of Cde Mugabe, whom he described as an iconic leader of the country’s struggle for liberation, has left a huge void in the nation. “A veteran nationalist and a doughty Pan Africanist fighter, Cde Mugabe bequeaths a 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 he met and melded key phases, moods and shifts in the story of our national struggle and a quest for freedom and statehood including the tragedies, pains and rigors which underwrote that epic story,” said President Mnangagwa.
“Incarcerated for 11 years in settler colonial prisons, he, alongside fellow nationalists who included the late father Zimbabwe, Cde Joshua Mqabuko 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.
“Before long and under his firm leadership, the struggle regained momentum expanded and consolidated, transforming the Patriotic Front into a formidable co-ordinated national liberation movement and fighting force capable of waging one of the most gruelling and protracted struggles in the Southern African region.”
President Mnangagwa said the nation owed its independence attained in 1980 to the sacrifices of veteran nationalists and freedom fighters pre-dating the 1960s, who included the late Cde Mugabe.
“A great teacher and mentor, the bitterness of long spells of incarceration and anguish of a brutal and bitter war, never extinguished Cde Mugabe’s forgiving inner humanity. That humanity shone 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,” said President Mnangagwa.”
“Through that policy of forgiveness, southern African politics took a definitive shift towards a just, post-conflict multi-racial 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.”
Apart from landmark post-independence transformations in areas of rights, education, social services for the hitherto marginalised Zimbabweans, President Mnangagwa said Cde Mugabe would be eternally remembered and honoured for the bold and historic Land Reform Programme which he undertook.
“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 today. Today, Zimbabwe’s Land Question, itself a principal grievance of our struggle, stands fully irrevocably addressed and resolved. History will remember him for this bold move,” said President Mnangagwa.
He said as the country mourns Cde Mugabe, his Government remains determined to carry forward the transformation the former President, “so fervently desired, including protecting and defending the gains of the struggle for which he made huge sacrifices”.
“On the bedrock and solid foundation of the First Republic which he moulded as its leader, we today recover and grow our economy brick by brick until his life-long vision of an empowered people is realised,” said President Mnangagwa.
Nduduzo Tshuma
Political Editor
Zimbabwe Chronicle
FORMER President, Robert Mugabe, who died in Singapore yesterday morning, has been declared a national hero and the Government has declared days of national mourning until his burial.
Cde Mugabe (95) was receiving medical treatment in the Asian country when he succumbed to an undisclosed illness.
Addressing journalists at State House in Harare following a Zanu-PF Politburo meeting at the party’s headquarters, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, said the death of Cde Mugabe leaves a big void in the nation.
“Zanu-PF, the party which the late departed helped found, has met and accorded him National Hero status which he earned and richly deserves.
“As we await the arrival of the remains of our dear departed icon, we pray that the good Lord grants him mercies, putting his dear soul to eternal rest. We as Zimbabweans declare days of mourning for our leader until he is buried,” said President Mnangagwa.
He paid tribute to the Government and people of Singapore for the hospitality and medical care they extended to Cde Mugabe 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,” said President Mnangagwa.
The President hailed former First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe for supporting her husband until he breathed his last.
“On behalf of our nation, that of my family and on my own behalf, I wish to express my deepest, heartfelt condolences to the Mugabe family, to Amai Grace Mugabe and the children especially, 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 of loss and bereavement which is also ours to feel and bear,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said the death of Cde Mugabe, whom he described as an iconic leader of the country’s struggle for liberation, has left a huge void in the nation. “A veteran nationalist and a doughty Pan Africanist fighter, Cde Mugabe bequeaths a 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 he met and melded key phases, moods and shifts in the story of our national struggle and a quest for freedom and statehood including the tragedies, pains and rigors which underwrote that epic story,” said President Mnangagwa.
“Incarcerated for 11 years in settler colonial prisons, he, alongside fellow nationalists who included the late father Zimbabwe, Cde Joshua Mqabuko 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.
“Before long and under his firm leadership, the struggle regained momentum expanded and consolidated, transforming the Patriotic Front into a formidable co-ordinated national liberation movement and fighting force capable of waging one of the most gruelling and protracted struggles in the Southern African region.”
President Mnangagwa said the nation owed its independence attained in 1980 to the sacrifices of veteran nationalists and freedom fighters pre-dating the 1960s, who included the late Cde Mugabe.
“A great teacher and mentor, the bitterness of long spells of incarceration and anguish of a brutal and bitter war, never extinguished Cde Mugabe’s forgiving inner humanity. That humanity shone 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,” said President Mnangagwa.”
“Through that policy of forgiveness, southern African politics took a definitive shift towards a just, post-conflict multi-racial 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.”
Apart from landmark post-independence transformations in areas of rights, education, social services for the hitherto marginalised Zimbabweans, President Mnangagwa said Cde Mugabe would be eternally remembered and honoured for the bold and historic Land Reform Programme which he undertook.
“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 today. Today, Zimbabwe’s Land Question, itself a principal grievance of our struggle, stands fully irrevocably addressed and resolved. History will remember him for this bold move,” said President Mnangagwa.
He said as the country mourns Cde Mugabe, his Government remains determined to carry forward the transformation the former President, “so fervently desired, including protecting and defending the gains of the struggle for which he made huge sacrifices”.
“On the bedrock and solid foundation of the First Republic which he moulded as its leader, we today recover and grow our economy brick by brick until his life-long vision of an empowered people is realised,” said President Mnangagwa.
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