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PUPPETS of the British will never rule Zimbabwe as long as the crop of revolutionaries in the mould of Vice President Muzenda is alive, President Mugabe said yesterday . The President castigated some local businesspeople whom he said had benefited from the country�s empowerment policies but have now turned against the Government. He was speaking at a church mass held in honour of Vice President Muzenda at his Lewisam home in Harare. Vice President Muzenda died on Saturday at Parirenyatwa Hospital after a long illness. Cde Mugabe said there would never be any indirect rule by the British in Zimbabwe. "Rule by remote control hatife takabvuma kunyange zvakadii hazvo," said President Mugabe. He said people like Cde Muzenda remained resolute and steadfast in fulfilling their wishes in the face of onslaughts by the British and the Americans who did not want the country�s heritage to be returned to its rightful owners. He said British fronts would never rule Zimbabwe during his lifetime. "It will never, never happen tiri vapenyu," he said. He said Zimbabweans should remain united and desist from colluding with the country's detractors in reversing the gains of independence. He said there were some people in both Government and business who were now prioritising the amassing of individual wealth and had thrown away the need for being morally upright. "Takatadza here kuti muve nemabhengi, kuti muve nemabusiness? Chatakanganisa chii? Chakanganiswa navaMuzenda chii?" asked President Mugabe. He urged local businesspeople to assist each other, remain united and work for national development. Narrating how he came to know Vice President Muzenda and his relationship with him thereafter, President Mugabe said there was no one else outside his family that he knew so well than Cde Muzenda. He said he started knowing Cde Muzenda before he got married at the age of 21 back in 1945 when he was a teacher. Having started teaching at the age of 18, President Mugabe first taught at several schools that included Dadaya and later in Zvishavane at Mapanzure, the home area of the Speaker of Parliament Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa. However, he did not stay long in Zvishavane because of its remoteness. He went to Bulawayo to look for another teaching post and was sent to Mpandeni. It was at Mpandeni that President Mugabe first met Vice President Muzenda who was introduced to him by a Cde George Tazvishaya. He said it was then that he got to know that Vice President Muzenda had been educated at Domboshava and that he was also looking for a job. But their friendship was to be short-lived for after the school holidays President Mugabe was told that Cde Muzenda had gone to South Africa to further his education. The two were later to meet in 1960 in the National Democratic Party where Cde Muzenda was head in Mvuma. He said he got to know that Cde Muzenda had been involved in trade unionism with the likes of Benjamin Burombo in the Voice Association. "Saka kubva ipapo rwakava rwendo zvino kwete rwekufamba asi rweChimurenga until yesterday, September 19, 2003," Cde Mugabe said. He said the journey that he travelled together with Vice President Muzenda during the struggle against colonial rule was a journey which could only be undertaken by the brave and those who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for the good of all. It was a journey that was undertaken when white settler rulers did not want to hear anything called African nationalism, President Mugabe said. He said Cde Muzenda was arrested and jailed by the then colonial regime several times. President Mugabe found Cde Muzenda in jail upon his return from Tanzania in December 1963. While in jail, President Mugabe was deeply touched when Cde Muzenda showed him his chest, which had been pierced by a needle by the then Rhodesian police. But despite all the brutality that was meted against him by the settler regime, Cde Muzenda never abandoned the mission to liberate the country. President Mugabe said Cde Muzenda was the first to source for bombs and dynamites which were used in the sporadic bombings of places in the then Salisbury. His unquestionable commitment to the liberation struggle saw him losing two of his daughters during the Chimoio raids in Mozambique. After the loss of his children, President Mugabe said, the then Zanla commander, the late Josiah Tongogara suggested that he be transferred from the camps to Maputo. The President said Cde Muzenda was not only a loss to the Muzenda family but to the whole nation. He said the family should be consoled by the fact that death was inescapable and only God was aware of the time and day. The secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops, Father Walter Nyatsanza and the Parish Priest of Mufakose Catholic Church conducted the mass. Father Nyatsanza said as a Catholic, Vice President Muzenda had always advocated the involvement of the ordinary people in all the activities of the church. He said it was the same values of freedom for all and equal opportunities for every citizen that he carried with throughout the days of the liberation struggle and in even after independence. He said the church had also lost a fountain of knowledge as from time to time he used to give advice on various matters concerning the church. Cde Muzenda is survived by his wife Amai Maud Muzenda and six children, Tsitsi, Tendai, Vitalis, Modesta, Chikwerete and Tongai. The
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"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
