Mugabe defends denial of hero status for Chikerema

Mugabe defends denial of hero status for Chikerema

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has defended his party’s decision not to grant hero status to a prominent nationalist fighter turned government critic who died last week, reports said Monday.

James Robert Dambaza Chikerema, a nephew of the president who played a key role in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence over more than two decades, was not given national hero status because he was “not consistent to the end,” the state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying.

Many of those who fought in Zimbabwe’s bush war have been buried with full honours at the National Heroes Acre, an exclusive burial site in Harare. Their funerals are televised live on the state’s sole TV channel and thousands attend.

However, critics say the graveyard has become a preserve of those loyal to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).

Chikerema, who died last week in the US, was instead buried Sunday at his rural home in Zvimba, central Zimbabwe. Mugabe attended the funeral.

“Comrade Mugabe said the ruling party’s policy was that a person should have participated in the struggle and continued to be consistent to the end even after independence but Comrade Chikerema did not do so after independence,” said the Herald.

Chikerema retired from active politics at independence in 1980, but frequently criticised Mugabe and his policies. – Sapa-dpa
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