Chronicle Editor
UPDATES: Lincoln Towindo
PHOTOGRAPHY: Believe Nyakudjara and Justin Mutenda
EDITOR: Costa Mano
1437: The National Anthem is now being sung and that brings to an end the proceedings here at the national shrine. That concludes our updates. Thank you for joining us.
1423: President Mugabe is now leading the laying of wreaths.
1401: The casket carrying the body of Cde Ntuliki is now being carried to his final resting place among fellow heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Zimbabwe.
1352: “Zimbabwe shall never be a colony again..Zenzo go well, may your soul rest in eternal peace, I thank you”
President Mugabe has finished his address.
1349: President Mugabe says to Cde Ntuliki’s family that the country mourns with them.
1342: President Mugabe has castigated rapists and thieves saying they want to destroy what the likes of Cde Ntuliki fought for.
1337: “We cannot let Zimbabwe fall into the hands of another country which is outside of ourselves, we are here as Zimbabweans.”
1335: “We must have the right to exploit our resources, our gold, our diamonds, to have our land, agriculture to grow what we love and to manage the country as a whole, as a nation. What we have described as being master of our destiny….if a foreign country decides to be hostile we must defend ourselves.
“No other nation can disturb that continuity in our sense eternal life of our people but in the biblical sense it’s not the eternity that pastors speak of. We need that independence and freedom, that right when everyone of us can beat his chest and say I belong to a country, I am a Zimbabwean, I am a child of the soil.”
1327: “Young as he still was, born in 1959, kungonzwa kuti mumwe wedu aenda you ask questions why why why why? We asked the same question two weeks ago why why why why? Noone can answer the why, we try to go to the pastors, the men of God and ask them to give the explanation why why why? Why should we depart from this earth?
“They don’t have the answer either, they’ll refer you to the holy book, the bible and the answer comes perhaps when they lay you to rest vachiti chakabva muvhu chinodzokera muvhu, woti ko ndakabva muvhu hongu ko handingoramba ndiri mupenyu here sevhu iroro? Iwe wakabva muvhu hausiri iwe ivhu iroro. Bhaibheri rinoti sekuru wedu ainzi Adam ndiye akakanganisa, akatanha muchero ndokudya muchero waakanga asina kupiwha ko ndi sekuru ka uyu…saka ndopaakazorangwa achinzi hauchava neupenyu uchadzokera muvhu,”
1320: “Their work,the nature of their work in defence, my differ from the work of the army or police but they are all the same as the arms of our defence.”
1315: “Isusu zvatiri pano, hatingo mhanye mhanye…..zvisiri mugwara zvinoonekwa nevaongorori vedu, nyanzvi dzedu dzine maziso, dzine nzeve, nyanzvi dzedu dzineruzivo kuti apa pantsvene apa pane nyoka. Musafambe nepapapa pane nyoka munga rumwe.”
1311: “We are back home, thank God he’s one of those who returned alive. He had worked hard, sacrificed so much for the freedom and independence of Zimbabwe. That independence had come in 1980, he didn’t go back to education to continue where he had left, no, he had acquired a new experience which now made him a suitable person for a role in intelligence and security and this is what he had studied in Bulgaria alongside 14 others. It was time for him to practice what he had learnt and improve on it,”
1303: “He, like his colleagues, was determined to fight for a liberated Zimbabwe alongside others, sacrificed in the same spirit as others. Well, what did it mean? I mentioned that he had to sacrifice like others, it meant that the hardships of the struggle whatever they may be, hunger, the consequence of illness, attack from the enemy. If these ills find you they find you, you will be ready.
“‘Let them come, I’m prepared to die for my country. So the leaders take heed, whatever training you can give me like the training you have given others I’ll accept, whatever command you give I’ll obey’, that was the spirit, the spirit of Zenzo as indeed it was the spirit of others and thus you dedicate yourself in that manner and give yourself up, reject the pleasures that were yours or would have been yours back home.”
1257: Self sacrifice was one of Ntuliki’s strongest attributes, self sacrifice, the struggle demanded…..sacrifice did not mean just going out and joining the other comrade. It meant that at heart, in your own mind as a comrade you were truly decided come what may to fight for the country. He vividly demonstrated this by his preparedness to forgo his secondary education, midway we are told as he joined the liberation struggle alongside other youths.”
1254: “We have worked with…we will also try to give our own narrative, our won description of Zenzo’s life as we saw it, as we had it and of course that fact that he”s being laid here is a demonstration that he was a comrade, a comrade at arms a comrade…who has sacrificed to go through that grief, that suffering alongside the rest of us,”
1251: “Comrades and friends only two weeks ago we were here to be bury a freedom fighter of the second chimurenga James Murozvi, today again with tears still on our cheeks we have been called by circumstances to come to this shrine as we mourn the departure of a gallant son of our second liberation struggle Cde Zenzo Ntuliki.
“May I on behalf of Zanu-PF and Government and on behalf of my family wish and extend my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved members of the Ntuliki family who have lost their strong pillar of strength. May they take comfort from the knowledge that as we gather here we are demonstrating, yes, our own sorrow.”
1245: President Mugabe is now on the podium.
1245: Dr Chombo is back on the podium. He describes Cde Ntuliki as a gallant cadre whose dedication to the country is testified by his decision to abandon his education to join the war. He invites President Mugabe to address the mourners.
1239: A choir is now providing a musical interlude.
1238: He concludes by bidding Cde Ntuliki farewell reciting the late comrade’s traditional totem praises.
1235: He says on behalf of the Ntuliki family he wishes to express gratitude to President Mugabe for Cde Ntuliki’s hero status. Maphekapheka means “Cook, cook again and cook fast”. He describes Cde Ntuliki as a family man who grasped the importance of education and ensured that his relatives would get a good education.
1231: Dr Chombo has now invited a family representative to address the mourners.
1221: Home Affairs Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo who is the master of ceremony is now on the podium. He invites minister of religion Albert Muleya,Senior Chaplin in the President’s Department, to lead the mourners in prayer.
1209: The casket is now being carried to the Tomb of Unknown Soldier.
1201: The Gun Carriage carrying the body of Cde Ntuliki has arrived at the National Heroes Acre accompanied by President Mugabe.
1101: Meanwhile, people have already gathered at the National Heroes Acre as they mourn yet another gallant son of the soil.
1049: President Mugabe and first lady Dr Grace Mugabe have arrived. President Mugabe will lead the body viewing ceremony.
1030: Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has arrived and has taken his seat inside the hall ahead of the body viewing ceremony, which will commence upon the arrival of President Mugabe.
1027: The Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees, Colonel Tshinga Dube (Retired) has arrived.
1010: The service chiefs have arrived.
1002: Several Cabinet ministers have arrived including Cdes Ignatius Chombo, David Parirenyatwa and Patrick Chinamasa.
0924: After completing the guerilla training, Cde Ntuliki was inducted to the Military Intelligence Department at CGT Camp where he worked as a security officer under the wing of Cde Busobenyoka who had trained with Minister Kembo Mohadi.
The CGT Camp was under the command of the current Zimbabwe National Army commander, Lt-General Philip Valerio Sibanda.
Cde Ntuliki was later on sent for specialised training in intelligence in Bulgaria and he was the leader of his group.
0920: An accomplished war veteran, Cde Ntuliki whose nom de guerre was Maphekapheka, joined the President’s Department soon after Independence in 1980 where he worked in various portfolios until the time of his death.
He was part of the group of 800 which was the first biggest group to undergo training when Zipra was still building its force.
Cde Ntuliki joined the armed struggle at a tender age of 15 and he soldiered on and kept pace during the rigorous guerilla training at Morogoro Camp, Tanzania in 1976.
0915: The body of late national hero Cde Zenzo Ntuliki haS arrived at Stodart hall in Mbare.Scores of mourners are gathered outside the hall singing revolutionary songs celebrating the late national hero.
Cde Zenzo Ntuliki (57), who was the Assistant Director in the President’s Department in charge of the western region, died last week at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo.
Online Reporter