adminThe Herald August 2, 1980
SALISBURY’S industrial towers and Kopje rise in the distance behind this view of part of the cleared Heroes’ Acre, near the Warren Hills Cemetery, where Zimbabwe’s national heroes are to be buried.
The late ZANLA military chief, Josiah Tongogara, ZANU (PF)’s former national chairman, Herbert Chitepo, and a senior Patriotic Front official, Jason Moyo, will be laid to rest at the Heroes Acre, which overlooks the city.
Despite its name, the cemetery will not, as such, be one acre, sources said yesterday. “It is an open space,” one source said.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
The country’s independence came after a protracted war that claimed the lives of many sons and daughters of the country, most of whom were buried outside and inside the country.
One of the first things that the Zanu PF Government did after the attainment of independence was identifying a place to rebury some of the country’s eminent sons and daughters and the present site of the National Heroes Acre was identified in 1980. This was followed by the exhumation and repatriation of the Cdes Josiah Tongogara, Herbert Chitepo, and Jason Moyo’s remains, who were amongst some of the first National Heroes to be interred at the national shrine.
Construction of the national shrine started a year later in 1981 and today the shrine is an imposing and revered structure that is a symbol of bravery and selflessness for those whose remains are laid to rest there.
One of the striking features at the national shrine is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is in honour of tens and thousands of Zimbabweans who sacrificed their lives for the sake of our freedom and independence, but whose remains are scattered in valleys, disused mines, caves, unknown graves and mass graves spread across the nation and in neighbouring countries.
Online Reporter