Chronicle Editor
Nyemudzai Kakore Herald Correspondent—
The body of national heroine Mai Maria Msika was yesterday flown to her rural home in Chiweshe and later Bulawayo for her family and thousands of Zimbabweans to bid her farewell ahead of burial at the National Heroes Acre tomorrow.Mai Msika, widow of national hero and Vice President Joseph Msika, died last Friday at her Highlands home in Harare. She was 89.
Her body was airlifted from Defence Forces Funeral Parlour at One Commando Regiment in the afternoon, accompanied by her relatives after a prayer and body viewing was conducted by Chaplain-General of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Colonel Joseph Nyakudya.
From One Commando, the body was first taken to Kanyemba Secondary School in Chiweshe by two Air Force of Zimbabwe helicopters, one with the national heroine’s casket and the other with her close relatives. Upon arrival, the body then proceeded by road to the Msika homestead at Nyariri Village for a brief ceremony.
After the ceremony, the body returned to Harare and was flown to Bulawayo where it will lay in state. Today, the body is expected to be viewed by the public at a local hall in Bulawayo before being airlifted back to Harare in the afternoon. Upon arrival at One Commando, the body will then proceed to St Mary’s Anglican Church in Highlands for a church service and will then proceed to her home in the same suburb, where it will lie in state at Number 11 Nigel Lane, ahead of tomorrow’s burial. Speaking to journalists at One Commando, her nephew and family spokesperson Mr Jonathan Mapfumo thanked Government for according Mai Msika the highest honour of national heroine status as she was one of the pioneers to champion women empowerment by setting up trading sites in Bulawayo where women could sell their wares.
Mr Mapfumo said Mai Msika was a loving mother who sacrificed for both her children and the entire clan. “We are deeply indebted to Government and the party Zanu-PF for unanimously conferring the national heroine status to our matriarch and mother Mai Maria Msika. We are also in no doubt at all that in her own standing, she deserved this status,” he said.
“If one looks at her history, it is a history littered with self-sacrifice towards the struggle for independence of this country. We are also happy with the manner in which Government consistently looked after her during her long tenure of illness.
“She had provisions of her medical attendance everyday and for that, we are deeply indebted to Government. “We are also indebted to the staff that attended to her. As a token of appreciation, the family have set aside a cow for the staff that looked after our mother.” Mai Msika is survived by three children, Lucia, Shelton and Maxwell, eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
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