Fallen heroes' spirits speak out

SPIRITS of freedom fighters, who died during Zimbabwe's 1970s war of liberation, have reportedly expressed their displeasure at how those in Zanu-PF have forgotten their promises to the fallen heroes.

Last Thursday during a briefing of Zanu-PF cadres and war veterans at Matumba 6 Shrine in Mutasa district, Manicaland provincial commissar Gift Kagweda said after consultations with spirit mediums who were interceding for the fallen heroes, it was revealed that the fallen heroes were not appeased and that the Zanu-PF government had forgotten them.

"The comrades are not happy about how we have forgotten them. We have not kept our promises that we made during the war of liberation, which included that we would bury them properly once Zimbabwe has been liberated," Kagweda said.

"It was revealed that 42 years since independence, many fallen heroes, who died during the guerrilla war, were not exhumed from mass graves across the country so that they could be properly buried," he said.

In an exclusive interview with NewsDay, a spirit medium from Nyanga, Joyce Mlilo (alias comrade Masuku) said the main reason behind the rivalries in Zanu-PF was the disgruntlement of fallen heroes.

"The fallen comrades are disgruntled because they fought for this country and those who they fought side-by-side with during the struggle promised them that once the war was over, they would return and gather their remains to rebury them. Now no one has been reburied, and their remains are all over the country. If it was possible, government should intervene so that the country earns peace. Right now, things are not well in Zanu-PF because the comrades are disgruntled as they are out in the open," Mlilo said.

Nyanga war veterans chairperson Charles Muderemudzi also narrated how the fallen heroes buried in Avilla, Nyanga district told them, through spirit mediums, how the fallen heroes had been forgotten 42 years after independence.

"We went to another mass grave which had five bodies and the spirit mediums manifested saying:  ‘Now you are here, are you still thinking about us or you have forgotten us? It is now 42 years since you left us and we were watching you, satisfying yourselves and forgetting the dead who sacrificed for you. The way you are sidelining us is hurting us. Our parents are also hurt'," he said.

Matumba 6 Shrine was established in 2014 after the former Vice-President Joice Mujuru officiated at the reburial of the remains of close to 100 freedom fighters retrieved from a disused mine shaft at the Matumba 6 Mine. The mine was used as a mass grave.