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THE National Heroes’ Acre is a place for the “righteous” and not “sell-outs”, President Mugabe said yesterday as he led the burial of national hero, Brigadier-General Misheck Tanyanyiwa.Tanyanyiwa, 58, who was Zimbabwe’s defence attaché to China, collapsed and died on November 26 and was declared a national hero.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai has previously called for some of its officials to be buried at the national shrine.
But President Mugabe said the National Heroes’ Acre was reserved for a special breed of people who dedicated their lives to the fight against white minority rule and serving the interests of Zimbabwe.
“We know those who are virtuous that we bury at this shrine. We also know the sell-outs, those who ran away from the liberation struggle.
“We know them and they are the ones who are saying we want our people to be buried there. Which people, we ask?” President Mugabe said addressing thousands of mourners who braved the heat to witness Tanyanyiwa’s burial.
“We know the sell-outs, they will never be buried here. This is the place for our righteous, for those who were prepared to lay down their lives for our liberation.”
President Mugabe described Tanyanyiwa, who was pivotal in the creation of the One Commando Battalion and played a key role in the integration of Zanla, Zipra and Rhodesian forces into a national army in 1980, as “one of our most determined, courageous and gallant sons.”
He said it was people like the late hero who helped scupper declarations by Rhodesian leader Ian Smith that there would be no black rule “in a thousand years.”
“He (Smith) actually called me prime minister in his lifetime because of people like Tanyanyiwa who dedicated their lives to free this nation,” President Mugabe said.
He said reforms which the opposition were calling for in the military were “not going to happen.” Tanyanyiwa, a decorated soldier, also played a part in ending wars in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Mugabe said the late hero had helped forge stronger ties between the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
“May his life inspire us, young and old, to defend the gains of our independence, to protect our natural resources, to sacrifice our lives if necessary in order to ensure that this country will never fall into the hands of our enemies again,” he said. – New Ziana
Online Reporter