Former minister and liberation struggle stalwart Tshinga Dube who died last week in Bulawayo will be buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare tomorrow – against his wish. Dube had wanted to be buried at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo, where prominent city residents who contributed a lot to its development are laid to rest, but government prevailed over his family to take him to Harare – against his will.
His son Vusumuzi Dube said his father made it clear he did not want to buried in Harare, but authorities bulldozed their way and imposed their will on his family, effectively on him in death also.
The late minister Cephas Msipa, also ex-Zapu like Dube, was buried at the national heroes acre in 2016 at the insistence of the late former president Robert Mugabe, a close friend, when he had said that he should be laid to rest in Gweru next to his wife’s grave.
Several former liberation struggle luminaries, especially those from Zapu, particularly Welshman Mabhena and Dumiso Dabengwa, rejected the heroes acre.
Mabhena, former Zapu secretary general, used to publicly say, even in front of journalists,
“I don’t want to be buried at the heroes acre in Harare next to corrupt people, thieves and murderers”.
Mabhena
The heroes concept and the heroes acre shrine are now discredited due to a partisan selection process and endless controversy over the years.
