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Limukani Ncube, Editor
President Mnangagwa last week elaborated on his servant leadership and open-door policy when he hosted the widow of Rodgers Alfred Nikita Mangena, national hero and former commander of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA), the military branch of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu).
The President met Mrs Sikhubekiso Madeya Mangena last week at State House in Harare. Mrs Mangena was accompanied by her son, Lotshe, who was two years old when his father died. General Mangena died after the car he was travelling in detonated a Rhodesian-planted landmine near Kabanga Mission in Zambia on 28 June 1978.
While the President has met with countless sons and daughters of the struggle, the engagement with General Mangena’s widow and son was more telling, considering the role played by the late ZPRA commander. Furthermore, the family of General Mangena commended President Mnangagwa’s open door policy and his willingness to listen to challenges faced by families of former freedom fighters.
According to our sister paper, Chronicle, the meeting was part of the broader engagement that President Mnangagwa has been having with widows of former freedom fighters in trying to appreciate their challenges and how they can be addressed. In an interview with Chronicle, the late General Mangena’s son, Mr Lotshe Mangena, commended the President for his open door policy.
“The President has an open-door policy. So, we see him every now and again. We call his office if we have any problems or anything that we think he might be able to solve for us. So, when we visited, we were paying a courtesy call on him,” said Mr Mangena in a brief interview.
Presidential spokesperson and deputy chief secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Mr George Charamba said President Mnangagwa’s meeting with the Mangena family speaks to his pledge to engage with surviving members of families of late freedom fighters.
“His Excellency, the President, met Mai Mangena and her son, Lotshe, and this was not the first meeting, if I’m not mistaken, he has met them more than three or four times. The meeting was in the context of touching base he is doing with the widows of liberation war heroes. The President is very much worried about the welfare of widows, and this is why he has been meeting and keeping in touch with them.
“But also, he is focusing on the command element of the two liberation movements — ZPRA and Zanla. This is why in Mount Darwin during the Independence Day celebrations, the Government, on the President’s instruction, invited surviving members of the high command in both ZPRA and Zanla to the event,” Mr Charamba was quoted as saying.
Mr Charamba said the move was not going to end with the Mangena family as the Second Republic shows gratitude to families of the revered freedom fighters.
“And this will be the practice in future State occasions, surviving members of the High Command and General Staff will now be invited. This is a gesture of gratitude for their service. In that context, the President recently met Mrs Mangena and Lotshe. Rodgers Alfred Nikita Mangena was a foremost commander and patriot, which is why his family remains a priority to His Excellency,” said Mr Charamba.
The meeting was a continuation of the recognition and honour that the President and Government had already conferred to the former ZPRA supremo. In 2021, the national hero was conferred with the revered Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit (GZM) medal. Furthermore, a cantonment which houses the Zimbabwe National Defence University and other institutions was also renamed the Rodgers Alfred Nikita Mangena Barracks.
“I am very grateful for their hospitality. I should also thank President Mnangagwa and his Government for the recognition they gave my husband, renaming the Zimbabwe National Defence University after him. The Government did not stop there as it also conferred on him in 2021 the revered Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit (GZM) medal. We were humbled by that,” Mrs Mangena told this publication in an earlier interview.
The recognition of General Mangena, and other ZPRA cadres, and now, the hosting in Harare, where the Mangena family had an opportunity to interact with the President, further elaborates on the discourse of national healing and national unity, as espoused by President Mnangagwa. It further shows the President’s recognition of the massive role played by the two liberation movements, PF Zapu and Zanu-PF and their military wings of ZPRA and Zanla respectively during the war of liberation. It further cements the Unity Accord signed in 1987 between the two parties, leading to the emergence of a united Zanu-PF. The remains of General Mangena were reburied at the national shrine on August 11, 1998.
On the occasion to mark the Heroes Day in 2021, merit awards were given to a number of ZPRA liberation stalwarts, among other liberation heroes and other rarely acknowledged public intellectuals, which was testimony that the Second Republic is keen to restore national memory and acknowledge the role played by everyone in the struggle for independence and development of the country. Before that, only members of the uniformed forces could be conferred with such national awards and honours.
Among those honoured were liberation war stalwarts from ZPRA, inclusive of General Nikita Mangena (Grand Commander of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit Award), who was honoured posthumously with General Magama Tongogara from Zanla. Other ZPRA cadres honoured were pioneering freedom fighters, Cde Jane Ngwenya, who passed on in 2021, Cde Moffat Hadebe, Cde Abraham Nkiwane, Cde John Maluzo Ndlovu and Cde Gibson Mayisa. They were honoured in Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit category. The Grand Commander of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit Award is followed by the Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit Award and both fall in the top three.
Other individuals honoured for their various contributions in their respective sectors were historian Mr Pathisa Nyathi, the late Professor Phineas Mogorosi Makhurane (former Nust Vice Chancellor), Prof Ngwabi Mulunge Bhebhe (former Midlands State University Vice-Chancellor) and the late Mrs Joanna Girlie Moyo-Sibanda (educationist), who got the Order of the Star of Zimbabwe Silver and Cde Cain Mathema got the Commendation Award together with Mr Nyathi, among others.
Analysts described the move by the Second Republic under the leadership of President Mnangagwa as a master stroke. Political analyst, Mr Richard Mahomva was quoted as saying the Second Republic has been involved in a process of putting together many “disjointed aspects of our nationhood.”
He said the specifically designated honour to ZPRA cadres and other rarely acknowledged public intellectuals was an expression of history re-living itself and the restore legacy philosophy of 2017.
Furthermore, Mrs Mangena is not the first widow of a high-flying nationalist to receive attention from the President. The President in 2019 ordered the Government to start giving pensions and related benefits to the widow of former President Canaan Banana. However, Mrs Janet Banana died in 2021.
Mrs Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a niece to the late former President Banana is on record as saying that Mrs Banana returned home because of the new dispensation. She said Mrs Banana returned to Zimbabwe to reunite with her family when the Second Republic came into office after spending 18 years in self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom as she felt persecuted by the previous political administration. She was given a vehicle for use by the Government, and her medical bills were taken care of by the State until the time she passed on.
The recognition that families of liberation stalwarts are getting from the highest office in the land serves to restore national memory and put in place some disjointed aspects of the liberation struggle and nationhood. It is a masterstroke.
Online Reporter