Acting President Mphoko visits Gonakudzingwa

The recreation of Gonakudzingwa Detention Camp has been cited as a key issue which needs urgent attention to ensure the history of the liberation struggle does not fade.

Acting President Phelekezela Mphoko visited the former detention camp and stressed the need to recreate the camp.

Concrete slabs, where housing structures were built on are the only visible evidence that the secluded site in Gonarezhou National Park was once a detention camp.

Though featuring in all history books and accounts of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, Gonakudzingwa which was home to liberation icons such as the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo among other nationalists has almost been forgotten.

Mphoko said sites such as Gonakudzingwa cannot be left to deteriorate to a point where future generations will not know the historical value of such places.

"It is very unfair not to recognise that our leaders suffered at Gonakudzingwa. The British will never recreate this for us because it paints them in bad light," he said.

Another historic site that has been ear marked for recreation is Sikombela Detention Camp in Zhombe.

Meanwhile, Mphoko addressed hundreds of Zanu PF supporters at Chikombedzi Centre where he urged Zimbabweans to desist from discriminating one another on tribal grounds and instead focus on developmental issues.

"Nxa lifuna I Zimbabwe iye phambili , siyai zvinhu zvekuti tiri maKaranga , hee tirimaNdebele , and say Zimbabwe ndeyedu tose. (If you want Zimbabwe to develop, stop saying I am Karanga or I am Ndebele, but say Zimbabwe is for all of us)," Acting President Mphoko said.

Cde Mphoko's visit to Gonakudzingwa and Chiredzi is part of his three day tour of Masvingo province to meet various stakeholders such as sugar cane growers in the lowveld.