adminThe Herald, July 25, 1981
AN explosion badly damaged Zimbabwe’s Independence Arch about 10km from Salisbury along airport road early yesterday morning.
A police spokesman said an explosive device containing at least 5kg of TNT had been placed on one leg of the 8m high and 8m long concrete arch.
The blast removed about 2m of one supporting pillar, leaving it leaning inwards and threatening to collapse.
Residents living nearby said that just after dawn they heard a loud blast, which rattled windows over a wide area.
An airport employee had a narrow escape. Only seconds after Mr Harry Holdcrost passed under the arch at about 6.55am, he heard a loud bang.
“I looked through my rear-view mirror and saw the Independence Arch about 100m away disappear in a violent gust of explosive dust,” he said.
Saying that he just kept going, Mr Holdcrost added he had been very lucky. There were no other cars in the vicinity of the blast at the time, except for one about 300m ahead of Mr Holdcrost.
Mr Holdcrost said he alerted the police as soon as he got to the airport. Explosives evidently placed at the foot of one of the upright support pillars blew about two metres of concrete from the structure but failed to collapse it.
No one was hurt in the blast, but police blocked the road and diverted traffic past the structure while CID forensic scientists gathered material from the site and Department of Works workers began mopping up operations.
The explosion left one of the heavy cross beams supported only by metal bars and the upright support on the other side.
The arch was erected to coincide with the first independence anniversary on April 18.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Independence arches are national monuments of different shapes and sizes that are erected by countries, mostly those that were formerly colonised, as symbols of their struggles against colonial rule.
Some African countries have independence arches, most notably Ghana and Malawi. Most of the monuments are guarded because of the national importance.
In Zimbabwe the independence arch was constructed by the Salisbury Council (now Harare City Council) to mark the country’s transition from colonial rule to majority rule as Zimbabwe.
The arch’s construction started on April 10, 1980 and its completion was to coincide with the country’s first independence anniversary on April 18, 1980.
Online Reporter