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'There is no greater love to your people than sacrificing your life to liberate the country' says Mugabe
29 Aug 2013 at 11:51hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe says there is no love greater than sacrificing one's life for the nation.
Speaking during the burial of ZANU founder and national hero, Enos Nkala at the National Heroes Acre on Thursday afternoon, President Mugabe said the country has lost a gallant son of the soil who sacrificed his life for the liberation of Zimbabwe.
"Enos gave his life to the nation so that it can regain its lost sovereign right to determine its destiny. He gave direction to others, showed love and there is no greater love to your people than sacrificing your life to liberate the country," said Mugabe.
The President also said Nkala stood by the conviction that only Zimbabweans and not outsiders have a right to determine the country's destiny.
He said: "As long as we live, we have the right to determine our destiny, the right to say to the imperialist you cannot rule us, and that is what Enos did."
Mugabe, who decided not to use his prepared speech to pour out his heart to his former colleague, went down memory lane describing how he started working with Nkala during the early 1960s.
He chronicled the journey he travelled with Nkala before independence including the formation of ZANU, the detention and injustices they experienced at the hands of the white settler minority in their quest to free the nation from the colonial bondage.
ZANU was formed at Nkala's Highfield house number 4449 in Harare in 1963, and Mugabe said he was appointed the party's Secretary General in absentia, as he was in Tanzania.
President Mugabe said from his personal experience with Nkala in various prisons and detention camps, he knew him as an abrupt and short tempered man but very friendly.
In one of the prisons, Nkala exchanged fist blows with one of the white prison guards, Mugabe said, adding that it was an indication that he was prepared for any eventuality in the fight against white supremacy.
Mugabe said in Nkala, he has lost a personal friend whom he shared some intimate relationship including his personal love life.
The president said upright men like Nkala castigated homosexuality which he said is against the Christian values.
Concluding his speech, Mugabe said: "We have loved you and we will miss you. You have written your story, let the young ones read it. You have written your song and let the nation listen to it. Hamba kahle qhawe lamaqhawe [Go well hero of heroes]."
Nkala died of kidney failure at the Avenues Hospital in Harare on Wednesday last week, a day after President Mugabe had visited him in hospital.
It was also a day before Mugabe's inauguration as president after a resounding victory in last month's elections.
Speaking during the burial of ZANU founder and national hero, Enos Nkala at the National Heroes Acre on Thursday afternoon, President Mugabe said the country has lost a gallant son of the soil who sacrificed his life for the liberation of Zimbabwe.
"Enos gave his life to the nation so that it can regain its lost sovereign right to determine its destiny. He gave direction to others, showed love and there is no greater love to your people than sacrificing your life to liberate the country," said Mugabe.
The President also said Nkala stood by the conviction that only Zimbabweans and not outsiders have a right to determine the country's destiny.
He said: "As long as we live, we have the right to determine our destiny, the right to say to the imperialist you cannot rule us, and that is what Enos did."
Mugabe, who decided not to use his prepared speech to pour out his heart to his former colleague, went down memory lane describing how he started working with Nkala during the early 1960s.
He chronicled the journey he travelled with Nkala before independence including the formation of ZANU, the detention and injustices they experienced at the hands of the white settler minority in their quest to free the nation from the colonial bondage.
ZANU was formed at Nkala's Highfield house number 4449 in Harare in 1963, and Mugabe said he was appointed the party's Secretary General in absentia, as he was in Tanzania.
President Mugabe said from his personal experience with Nkala in various prisons and detention camps, he knew him as an abrupt and short tempered man but very friendly.
In one of the prisons, Nkala exchanged fist blows with one of the white prison guards, Mugabe said, adding that it was an indication that he was prepared for any eventuality in the fight against white supremacy.
Mugabe said in Nkala, he has lost a personal friend whom he shared some intimate relationship including his personal love life.
The president said upright men like Nkala castigated homosexuality which he said is against the Christian values.
Concluding his speech, Mugabe said: "We have loved you and we will miss you. You have written your story, let the young ones read it. You have written your song and let the nation listen to it. Hamba kahle qhawe lamaqhawe [Go well hero of heroes]."
Nkala died of kidney failure at the Avenues Hospital in Harare on Wednesday last week, a day after President Mugabe had visited him in hospital.
It was also a day before Mugabe's inauguration as president after a resounding victory in last month's elections.
Source - zbc
