We’re giving decent burials to comrades

THIS week, CDE GIFT KAGWEDA concludes his account by chronicling the military training he received in Yugoslavia in 1979.

He also tells our Political Editor KUDA BWITITI how he helped dismantle the system that had been built by colonialists in Rhodesia, as well as the work he is now doing under the Manicaland Identification, Verification, Exhumation and Reburial of Fallen Heroes Trust (MIVERFHT) to give decent burials to comrades who were buried in unmarked or mass graves during the war.

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Q: You said you trained in Yugoslavia twice. Please give us details about your second training there.

A: I trained in operational techniques using gadgets and intelligence.

This high-level training lasted three months.

I was then attested into the Zimbabwe National Army soon after I came back from Yugoslavia.

I actually missed the April 18 Independence Day celebrations as I was still in Yugoslavia.

Q: For how long did you serve in the army?

A: I worked for several years under the military intelligence section.

Our main aim was to dismantle the Rhodesian systems.

Q: What challenges were you facing under the Rhodesian systems?

A: They still had colonial ways of doing things to maintain white superiority.

We had to set up new structures and come up with new ways of doing things. So, it was a case of overhauling many things.

We had to overhaul the police system, the intelligence department and district administration offices.

I was deployed to Masvingo and helped to set up local government structures there.

We were part of the team that set up the ward systems under councillors.

So, I worked under the Ministry of Local Government until our posts were abolished in 1993.

In the late 1990s, I joined politics full-time and became chairperson of the war veterans in Manicaland in 2016.

Q: Tell us about the work you are doing with MIVERFHT.

A: We are responsible for running day-to-day affairs at the Matumba National Shrine, located just outside Mutare.

It was accorded national shrine status in 2015.

Our work involves burying comrades who perished during the war at this shrine.

The shrine was a mass grave where bodies of comrades who were killed by Rhodesian soldiers were dumped in a disused mine shaft.

Our mandate is to give decent burials to those who died during the war.

Here at the shrine, we have reburied the ramains of more than 600 comrades. Most of them were retrieved from mass graves here in Manicaland. But we believe there are thousands of comrades who are still buried in mass graves in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia.

Q: What are you doing about the mass graves in Mozambique and Zambia?

A: From Mozambique, we have retrieved some bodies and reburied them at our shrine.

But in Zambia, we have encountered challenges, particularly cross-border protocols.

For example, there we have had challenges with two of our former camps, which are Freedom Camp and Mkushi Camp.

We are aware that some of our comrades were buried there and their remains are being picked up by farmers operating there.

Also, in Mozambique, we have caretakers at places like Chimoio, Doroi and Nyadzonya.

They tell us that more needs to be done to protect such places.

Q: As MVERFHT, what challenges are you facing in conducting reburials of fallen comrades?

A: Resources are our biggest challenge.

When we have conducted our exhumations, we have received help from funeral companies like Doves and First Mutual.

But we operate on shoestring budgets because we rely on donations.

Donations like vehicles, protective clothing, tents and shovels will help us a lot because at times we do the exhumations without enough materials.

Most recently, we exhumed the remains of 20 comrades from Nyanga, but we did so without sufficient basic materials.