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kuvhoterwa muDCC. You are destroying the party for which people like Edson worked so hard,” he said.
“Do your work. Let the people judge you. If they do not like you, they do not like you. We do not want impositions. No!”
President Mugabe urged party cadres to emulate Cde Ncube whom he said was humble and hardworking throughout his political career.
“How many of us can be like him? Edson was very quiet and very humble. I worked with him for a long period. He never complained. There are very few people like him. I say so deliberately. We are becoming too materialistic and that is going to destroy the party.”
He said Cde Ncube, whom he described as an embodiment of the history of the liberation struggle, accepted any position given to him without frowning.
President Mugabe said Cde Ncube was “a man of an impeccable character” who was always reliable and honest.
“There are very few people like him, people who will tell you the truth and avoid telling you lies. These are the people we revere here,” he said.
President Mugabe urged unity in Zanu-PF as the country geared for national polls.
“We are looking forward to have an election on the basis of a new Constitution. Let us get united. He (Cde Ncube) is leaving us when the party has recovered from the blows of March 2008, but let us work hard in his name and in the name of all those who lie here,” President Mugabe said.
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces criticised political leaders who seek the intervention of Europeans in their quest for national leadership.
“If you think you cannot rule this country if you do not go to Europe then you do not deserve to rule this country. We want people who can say Zimbabwe is an
African country, Africa for Africans. We can rule ourselves. We can think and conceive ideas and turn those ideas into programmes,” he said.
“Teach those people who still think the white man is wiser than the black man the revolutionary gospel of Zanu-PF.”
He said no imperialist would “ever teach you how to rule yourself”.
The British, President Mugabe said, can rule the rest of the world but not Zimbabwe.
Earlier on in the morning hundreds of people thronged Stodart Hall in Mbare to bid farewell to Cde Ncube.
Among them were two MDC ministers Samuel Sipepa Nkomo (Water Resources Development and Management) and Seiso Moyo (Deputy Minister Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development).
At Stodart Hall, youths waved placards praising Cde Ncube’s contribution in the liberation war.
Read some of the banners: “Let us defend the gains of the liberation”, “Cde Ncube: principled and disciplined”, “Go well Cde Ncube”, “Cde Ncube, a servant of the people.”
After body viewing, Cde Ncube’s body was taken to the national shrine for burial.
Cde Ncube was the Zanu-PF deputy secretary for administration and held a number of positions in the party.
He was declared a national hero on account of his illustrious record of service before and after independence.
Cde Ncube joined the African National Congress in 1959.
He was active in different nationalist movements at various stages of his life ranging from the National Democratic Party, Zimbabwe African People’s Union, People’s Caretaker Council and the African National Congress.
Online Reporter