Online Reporter
Richard Muponde in Hurungwe
Zimpapers Politics Hub
THE Dr Arthur Makanda-led chapter of the Fallen Heroes Trust of Zimbabwe (FHTZ) has severed its links with the organisation and reconstituted itself as the Zimbabwe National Heroes and Heroines Trust (ZNHHT) , declaring that no liberation fighter will be discriminated against on the basis of the military formation under which they fought.
The decisive break came a fortnight ago at Chebere Shrine at Grand Parade Farm in Hurungwe, where the organisation completed the reburial of 37 ZIPRA cadres exhumed from shallow graves in Sanyati and Hurungwe respectively.
The occasion effectively marked the final operation under the FHTZ banner for Dr Makanda’s national-flavoured chapter, with the new Zimbabwe National Heroes and Heroines Trust being publicly acknowledged in salutations by Mashonaland West Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Cde Marian Chombo, who was Chief Mourner at the ceremony alongside Minister of Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Affairs, Senator Monica Mavhunga, whose Ministry funded the budget for the reburials.
Dr Makanda said the new trust was established to remove divisions and ensure that the national liberation heritage was preserved without favouring one military wing over another.
“Yes, we have registered a Trust called Zimbabwe National Heroes and Heroines Trust, and the main aim is to identify, exhume and rebury the fallen comrades who died during the liberation struggle,” Dr Makanda told the Zimpapers Politics Hub.
“What we intend to do is to be all-inclusive. We are not looking at a particular force that this is the force that we identify and rebury; we are looking at all liberators. Basically, that is the main thrust. We also want to advocate for the identification, exhumation and repatriation of all those comrades who fell during this struggle in neighbouring countries or in countries that supported the liberation struggle.”
He said the organisation’s mandate extended beyond Zimbabwe’s borders, with the objective of bringing home liberation fighters whose remains lie in foreign lands.
“We want to bring them back home. So that’s the main thrust — to unite them with their families and, if there are issues that are to be discussed, maybe between families which were a result of the war shenanigans, then probably as an organisation or a trust we will then try and assist,” Dr Makanda said.
He stressed that the trust would not usurp the authority of families in resolving sensitive wartime disputes.
“But we will not interfere with what families require to do. So we will just raise the issue with the families so that they can discuss. We can provide a safe environment for them to discuss,” he said.
The formation of the new trust comes after Dr Makanda’s FHTZ chapter had established a national footprint through receiving numerous manifestations concerning fallen liberation fighters whose remains are yet to be identified, exhumed and accorded dignified burials.
The chapter’s latest major undertaking culminated in the identification, exhumation and reburial of the 37 ZIPRA cadres killed by the Ian Smith regime in 1979 and buried in shallow graves in Sanyati and Hurungwe.
The new trust says the exercise now provides a springboard for a broader national mission to account for liberation fighters irrespective of their military affiliation.
The move is therefore being framed as a deliberate rejection of selective remembrance, with the organisation seeking to preserve the history, sacrifice and legacy of all Zimbabwe’s liberation heroes and heroines-@muponderichard
