Enos Nkala's last journey to Bulawayo

THE funeral service for national hero and former Cabinet Minister Enos Mzombi Nkala who died in Harare last week will be held tomorrow at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds in Bulawayo ahead of his burial at the National Heroes Acre on Thursday.

The outspoken Zanu-PF founder member and former Defence, Finance and Home Affairs Minister, Nkala, succumbed to renal failure at Avenues Clinic in Harare at the age of 81 and was accorded national hero status.

According to the burial programme issued by the Nkala family yesterday, the veteran nationalist's body would leave the capital for Bulawayo today.

"We are bringing his body home tomorrow (today) in the afternoon and we expect to leave Harare at 12pm and arrive in Bulawayo at 2pm," said the family spokesperson, Mr Hebert Nkala in a telephone interview from Harare.

"We will then proceed to his farm in Esigodini between 2pm and 3pm for a brief funeral service before going to his Woodlands house at 4pm. His body will lie in state at the home until Wednesday morning."

Mr Nkala said a funeral service for Nkala would be held at the ZITF grounds tomorrow between 8am and 12pm.

"After the farewell funeral service on Wednesday, the body will be taken back to Harare at around 3pm where it will lie in state. On Thursday it will be taken to Stodart Hall and then to the National Heroes Acre for burial," he said.

Mr Nkala said the family was honoured by the respect given to their father by the national leadership.

"As a family we feel really honoured and humbled that our father has been declared a national hero.

"While we are aware of the contribution he made to the struggle, to the party and the Government as a minister and also that Zanu-PF was founded at his house in August 1963, we did not take the honour for granted because it is the prerogative of the Politburo and its leader President Mugabe," he said.

Responding to views that Nkala would be buried at the national shrine against his will, Mr Nkala said the family resolved the matter with him well before he fell ill.

"This is something we dealt with extensively and we are not going against his will as some people are saying. The family is very comfortable with his hero status," said Mr Nkala.

"We are aware that ubaba might have made statements in 2010 saying he did not want to be buried at the National Heroes Acre. We want to clarify that as far back as 2012, ubaba called the family and engaged us on the issue many times in meetings that he initiated," he said.

"He said he made those statements in anger, noting that he had surrendered his life to Christ and that he had reviewed his value system. He said he was no longer in doubt that if the party offered to bury him at the national shrine, he would not have problems with it."

Matabeleland South Zanu-PF chairman Andrew Langa said his province was pleased with the recognition of Nkala's contribution to the liberation struggle and after independence.

Nkala, who was born in Filabusi, Matabeleland South, was one of the founders of Zanu as the party was formed at his house, 4449 Highfields, Harare in 1963.

Mourners are gathered at House Number 62 Carrick Road, Borrowdale in Harare while in Bulawayo they are gathered at Nkala's house at House Number 9 Eastwood Road, Woodlands.

Nkala is survived by wife, Thandiwe, eight children, six grand children and two great grand children.