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Freedom Mutanda Correspondent
People from Chipinge have hailed the New Dispensation for holding a ceremony on the conferring of hero status on the late founding father of ZANU, Reverend Ndabaningi Chakandiwana Sithole, which took place last week.
Many of the locals who attended the ceremony said it was a feel-good event, as Rev Sithole was a man of the people who rose from humble beginnings to lead a mass party like the then ZANU. Mr Reuben Magaa Dhlakama, who is in his 80s, said Rev Sithole suffered a lot for his beliefs.
“He believed that everyone was equal and no one should be ill-treated,” he said. “He went to America and on returning to the then Southern Rhodesia, he worked at Chikore Mission. Soon, a white man came to the mission and received a higher salary than his.
“He did not take that lying down; he told the authorities that he should earn as much as the white man for they had similar qualifications. From there, he never looked back even though they transferred him to Mount Selinda.”
President Mnangagwa conferred national hero status on Rev Sithole in August 2020, with the ceremony to mark the milestone being held last week.
For this, people from Chipinge said they were grateful.
They said the conferring of national hero status on Rev Sithole was long overdue, and praised President Mnangagwa “for being pragmatic and doing the right thing”.
“I am really excited over this conferment,” said Harry Chibhaahlengwe, who is in his late 80s and lives in Marozva village. “The fact that His Excellency has remembered the role played by the Reverend shows how big his heart is. Thank you Mr President.” Rev Sithole suffered at the hands of whites because of his belief in levelling the playing field to enable whites and blacks to interact at the same level.
For starters, his family could not enjoy his presence from the time he entered full time politics in the early 1960s.
Moreover, according to Mr Dhlakama, the Selous Scouts, a feared arm of the Rhodesian security forces, poisoned Rev Sithole’s father, while his son was in prison. Hundreds of people congregated at Emerald School for the main celebration, while others went to Freedom Farm where the programme ended. While at Freedom Farm, a 21-gun salute was done, much to the appreciation of the crowd gathered there.
Wreaths from President Mnangagwa, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Zanu PF Vice President and Second Secretary Cde Kembo Mohadi, service chiefs and the family were placed on the Rev Sithole’s tomb.
According to the spokesperson of the Mutema chieftaincy, Mutape Bvaranga Mwandeka, Rev Sithole consulted the spirit medium of the Mutema dynasty on how to prosecute the liberation war. It is at Mutema communal lands where the traditional ceremony was undertaken.
“I was a young boy at the time,” said Mutape Bvaranga. “Ndabaningi Sithole is of the Bote family whose relatives are found in the valley side of Chipinge. He consulted Mwakopa’s spirit medium and he was told what to do.
“After some days, following the killing of a white man, Pieter Johannes Andries Oberholzer, at Skyline, William Ndangana came with the requirements and the spirit medium did what she had to do. The rest, as they say, is history. The ceremony was held in the early parts of 1964. Mutape Bvaranga said Rev Sithole asked for spiritual guidance from all corners of the country and it was because of this that many families had one or two cadres in the war.
The spiritual angle played a major role in the protracted Second Chimurenga, which culminated in the war being won.
Mr Lincoln Sigauke, whose father was there in the 1960s when Rev Sithole’s clarion cry “we are our own liberators” made waves throughout the country, said Rev Sithole had the ability to galvanise people into action.
“He went to Zaka, Matusadona, Great Zimbabwe and Matopos to ensure that what he was about to embark upon would yield success after getting blessings from the ancestors,” he said. “That ndonga (traditional stick) was not just a symbol of the post-independence ZANU Ndonga. During the war, whenever he raised it and pointed to the east, a deluge of young men and women would join the war effort.”
Ms Sifiso Sithole, the spokesperson of the Sithole family, thanked the Government for according her father the highest honour Zimbabwe could give.
She said it was better late than never.
“President Mnangagwa demonstrated an unusual and rare pragmatism by departing from a popular norm to address historical distortions,” said Ms Sithole. “We consider this a fitting event by the new dispensation.
“Among other qualities, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole was a visionary, principled, people oriented person. Though the conferment took time, the number of people present here attest to his immortal legacy.”
The guest of honour was President Mnangagwa, who was represented by Zanu PF chairman and Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri.
She said Zimbabwe will forever be grateful to Rev Sithole.
To that end, she said as Government and Zanu PF, President Mnangagwa sent her to convey his sympathies to the Sithole family.
She said: “Our President inaugurated the POLAD for people to work together regardless of what political party they are part of. There is strength in diversity and unity. We must learn from our forefathers who left a legacy of unity. Nyika inovaka nevene vayo. Riding on the spirit of unity the new dispensation is aware that the future is our challenge.
Turning to President Mnangagwa’s speech, Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri read: “The founding president of ZANU passed on in December 2000. My administration decided to bestow hero status on the late Ndabaningi Chakandiwana Sithole. He was not only a son of Chipinge or a son of Zimbabwe, but a son of Africa.”
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