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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
HUNDREDS of mourners yesterday thronged President Mugabe’s homestead at Kutama Village in Zvimba to pay their last respects to his sister, Cde Bridget Zvenhamo Mugabe, who died in Harare on Sunday.The liberation heroine succumbed to heart failure at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals at the age of 78 after having been hospitalised since she collapsed at the burial of her sister, Cde Sabina Mugabe, at the National Heroes Acre in 2010.
Among the mourners were diplomats from Algeria, Botswana, Britain, China, Cuba, the DRC, Ethiopia, the European Union, Indonesia, Malawi, Namibia, Palestine, the Sudan and Zambia among others.
Cabinet ministers, Zanu-PF parliamentarians, members of the party’s Politburo and Central Committee, and service chiefs were also present.
Proceedings started mid-morning with choral groups from the local Roman Catholic Church and Vabvuwi (Methodist Church), and Mbare Chimurenga Choir celebrating the life of the liberation heroine; with Zanu-PF youths chipping in with revolutionary songs.
First to arrive was Vice President Joice Mujuru, ministers and senior Government officials. The First Family arrived towards mid-day. Zanu-PF secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa officially announced the conferment of the liberation heroine status on Cde Bridget Mugabe.
“We worked with her in the then Ministry of National Affairs and she was hard-working. You have heard a lot about her life since yesterday (Monday) about the torture she went through here in Zvimba at the hands of the Ian Smith regime and because of that we saw it fit that she be declared a liberation heroine although we could also have bestowed her with a higher honour,” he said.
Family members said the late Cde Bridget Mugabe was close to the people. Mrs Regina Gata, her younger sister, said she owed what she was to Cde Bridget Mugabe.
“I was close to my sister because we stayed together and she looked after me when I was young in Highfield. She did a lot for me and while I would say some things to other people she never held any grudge against me. She was God-fearing; my sister was love itself,” she said.
Mrs Gata said the late heroine was a humble person who never abused the family name for personal gain. Mr Gabriel Mugabe, nephew to Mrs Gata, narrated how at a young age he saw Cde Bridget Mugabe interacting with freedom fighters.
“I stayed with her when she was teaching in Ngezi and we could see how she assisted freedom fighters who would visit our house on different occasions.
“I later learnt that some of the people that would come to our house include national hero Cde George Mudukuti,” he said.
Another nephew, Cde Leo Mugabe, spoke glowingly of his aunt and had the mourners in laughter on several occasions due to his animated description of her life.
He described how she prepared the food they would later term “the last supper” for the seven guerillas who fought the first battle that signalled the start of the Second Chimurenga in Chinhoyi in 1966.
Online Reporter