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Two nationalists, two liberation war stalwarts and two heroines who died on the same day on Friday make history today by becoming the first in history to be buried at the same graveyard on the same day.
Cde Victoria Chitepo, 88, was found dead at her Harare home on Friday. Cde Vivian Mwashita, 58, died at Parirenyatwa Hospital after having suffered a repeat stroke on Thursday last week. She had an earlier stroke in 2014 which left her wheelchair-bound. She was diabetic and hypertensive as well.
Born in South Africa, Cde Chitepo married Zimbabwe’s first black lawyer and one of the pioneers of the liberation struggle Cde Herbert Chitepo in 1955. She practically got married to the independence war as she was there where her husband, the Zanu chairman, was during the trying times. She is in the same league with Cdes Julia Zvobgo, Ruth Chinamano, Sally Mugabe and Maud Muzenda who were with their spouses in the struggle and suffered personally for that.
At one stage Cde Chitepo organised women to demonstrate against the settler regime and was imprisoned for that.
Known for her honesty, silence and modesty, Cde Chitepo served her country as a minister and legislator.
“She has gone now but she has written her own page or book of the struggle,” President Robert Mugabe said. “She had borne quite a difficult burden when her husband died, she was shattered but she still felt she did not only have children to look after, she had, also, the party her husband had worked for to care for . . . What her husband left undone she would do now, the fulfillment of the ambition and the mission which her husband left unfilled, she fulfilled it all. I am sure every one of us here has a different story, everyone here has her own story to tell about Mai Chitepo; that story will always have an element of love, an element of her preparedness to assist, (her) charitable disposition, wanting to assist and wanting reconciliation.
“She never was quarrelsome. No, never. She was never involved in conflicts; she also always encouraged harmony in the party, dialogue in the party and togetherness in the party.”
Whereas Cde Chitepo was one of the mothers of the war, Cde Mwashita actually received military training and fought at the front. She joined the liberation struggle aged 17 and campaigned in the Rushinga area of Mashonaland Central until Independence when she worked for Zanu-PF and later for the government in the Central Intelligence Organisation.
During the war, Cde Mwashita worked with Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Winnie Newanji, Erina Mukudu (Nyamweda), Susan Muchinguri and Tokodo Murinda.
“As the Politburo,” said Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo on Monday while announcing Cde Mwashita’s national heroine status, “we completed the consultations this afternoon as instructed by President Mugabe that we should consult all the members to ensure there was consensus. Politburo members concurred that she was a consistent cadre who was committed to the liberation of the country.
She is someone who was consistent during the liberation struggle and remained so even after independence. Others were expelled while some were suspended from the party because they sold out but she remained consistent. We even checked her history during her tenure in the Central Intelligence Organisation for more than 10 years and when she became an MP. We found out that her history was that of a consistent cadre. So President Mugabe said she should be declared a national heroine.”
From the depths of our hearts, we mourn the deaths of both heroines but are happy at the same time to have learnt a lot from their exemplary lives. They sacrificed their lives for a national, just cause of liberating their country and developing it socially, politically and economically post independence.
Cde Chitepo was born in South Africa, but when she found the love of her life, she left her country and decided to fight with him. She could have returned to her country of birth when her husband died in 1975 but she decided to stay through the war, into independence until Friday when she passed on, alone and quietly.
Cde Mwashita is an example of a cadre who sacrificed her youth by joining the struggle when some of her peers were advancing themselves academically and professionally.
We salute both comrades, our heroines as they take their places at that sacred graveyard, the National Heroes’ Acre where they belong given their selfless sacrifice to the national cause. They cement their place in history as the first national heroines to die on the same day and to be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre on the same day.
Online Reporter