Chronicle Editor
Mukudzei Chingwere, Harare Bureau
WORKING in collaboration with the family of the late national hero and liberation war commander General Josiah Magama Tongogara, the Government will come up with strategies that will ensure his legacy lives on and is celebrated owing to the immeasurable contribution he made to the country.
Acting President Dr Constantino Chiwenga made the promise when he spoke at the National Heroes Acre yesterday during this year’s commemorations of the death of the late Zanla military commander.
Dr Chiwenga, himself a stalwart of the country’s liberation, went down memory lane marvelling at his late commander’s wartime exploits and how his leadership was central to Zanla outwitting the colonial army.
His former commander was prophetic, extremely intelligent, and could foresee what would happen in the future because of the actions of today.
“As we mark 44 years since the unfortunate demise of General Tongo, it is incumbent upon us as a people to renew and recommit to the ethos of the liberation struggle for which General Tongo and thousands of our gallant sons and daughters toiled and laboured in the face of a bloody thirsty colonial regime,” said Acting President Chiwenga.
“I had the privilege of working under the command of the late Cde Josiah Magama Tongogara during the liberation war. He was patriotic, a fearless and principled leader and above all, a nationalist who strove for social justice and improvement of the quality of life for everyone.
“I must be the first one to admit that I am what I am today because of Cde Tongogara’s mentorship. Therefore, as we commemorate this day, let us not lose sight of the sacrifices that Cde Tongogara and other luminaries died for.
“I note that it has become routine that we celebrate this day the same way as we have done in previous years. I exhort officials and the Tongogara family to explore other ways in which we can commemorate this important day, the day Zimbabwe lost its most accomplished military officer who delivered independence after selflessly prosecuting an unforgiving war of liberation against the brutal colonial Government.
“I am heartened by the reaffirmation of the struggle that our people showed when they voted, in their millions, for the revolutionary party Zanu PF and its presidential candidate — His Excellency Cde Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa in national elections held this year.
“Indeed, this is the party of self-determination, self-governance and economic inclusion and development that General Tongo and other gallant sons and daughters of this great country bequeathed us,” said Acting President Chiwenga.
Acting Commander Zimbabwe Defence Forces Lieutenant General Anselem Sanyatwe also marvelled at their former commander.
“I remember the late General Tongogara. We called him the Chief of the Defence Forces of Zanla, the military wing of Zanu. We knew him as a man with foresight. He was a strategist, he planned the war to liberate Zimbabwe,” said Lieutenant General Sanyatwe.
“General Tongogara was a unifier; he was also a politician; he helped in planning the strategies of Zanu. He was also a unifier between Zapu’s military wing Zipra and his wish is what happened after independence, that is in the integration of the defence forces, we now call the Zimbabwe Defence Forces composed of the army and the air force,” said Lieutenant General Sanyatwe.
General Tongogara’s widow Cde Angeline Tongogara thanked the Second Republic for taking the family to the accident scene in Mozambique where her husband died.
She said they will also sit down as a family and the Tongogara Trust to come up with recommendations of how best General Tongogara can be commemorated as suggested by Acting President Chiwenga.
“We are talking of 44 years since his death, since the coming of the second dispensation in these few years they have done a lot,” said Cde Tongogara.
“What pained me a lot as a widow, is that I had not seen where the accident had happened. But the New Dispensation took us to the accident scene as a family.”
Ms Nyaradzo Tongogara, the daughter of the late national hero, said they found that the community in Mozambique had built a ceremonial grave for their father, and with the support of Government they built a clinic in honour of her father as a thank you to the community.
Online Reporter