Sundaymail Editor
Sunday Mail Reporter
President Mnangagwa will lead mourners at the National Heroes Acre for the burial of late national hero Cde Highten Nkomo, who passed away a fortnight ago.
Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Permanent Secretary Mr Aaron Nhepera said: “He will be buried on Monday at the National Heroes Acre.
“We are going to follow the same programme we have used during the burial of other national heroes in the past.”
Cde Nkomo was a pioneering veteran of the liberation war, who operated under the nom de guerre Cde Billy Mazamo.
Born in Zambia on January 12, 1952, to Zimbabwean immigrants, Cde Nkomo did his primary education in Kapopo under Chief Mungule.
Cde Nkomo would never set foot in the then Rhodesia again except as a freedom fighter after dropping out of school while doing Form Two in Zambia in the late sixties.
He was one of the early Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) cadres who included the likes of the late Major-General (Rtd) Jevan Maseko, Brigadier-General (Rtd) Abel Mazinyane, the late Colonel (Rtd) Masala Sibanda and others who trained at Morogoro in Tanzania from 1969 to 1970.
Cde Nkomo later trained as a military engineer in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and, thereafter, commanded various liberation camps, including Chakwenga Transit Camp, through which ZANU PF Vice President Kembo Mohadi; Commander, Defence Forces, General Valerio Sibanda; and many others passed through.
In 1976, he was sent to Mgagao as an instructor, where ZIPRA and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) cadres jointly trained and worked with the likes of national heroes Chief Air Marshal (Rtd) Perrance Shiri, Lieutenant-General (Rtd) Amoth Chingombe and Cde Gagisa Sibanda.
In 1977, he was appointed to open and command Mkushi Women Training Camp.
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