The Sunday Mail
HE President Mugabe
Josiah Magama Tongogara, who was the Chief of Defence of the Zanla forces during the liberation struggle – Comrade Tongo, we called him – envisioned a Zimbabwe that is free and unshackled by settler colonial racism, a Zimbabwe of equals in all spheres of human effort.
The land to be freed. The masses had to be liberated. The material circumstances of the masses had to transform for the better, through an array of social programmes.
The sturdy fight we have put up to assert Zimbabwe’s sovereignty, indeed in continued defence of her Independence today gives Josiah a good sense of fulfilment, for it was his perspective that Zimbabwe be defended well in order for it to remain free and sovereign for all times, for all generations.
The social programmes we have introduced since Independence, principally in the areas of education, skills development, health and infrastructural development will, no doubt, give Tongo some satisfaction.
I am sure he wants us to do more for our people, as indeed we must, so their circumstances transform sustainably, irreversibly.
Above all, with the land that has since come back into the hands of its true, rightful owners, and this after so long a painful wait, I am sure Josiah today celebrates with us the resolution of this age-old grievance, celebrates with us the settlement finally of this grievance of all grievances for our people.
But again, he wants us to fend for those who have got the land so they prosper sustainably.
I have no doubt, too, that from the world beyond, he keenly sees and follows what we seek to do here on earth through our policy of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.
He eggs us on, all the time exhorting us to use that policy to effectively restore to the masses their material dignity, indeed their place and voice in the national economy.
We hear his voice daily saying Zimbabwe’s resources belong to its people. We dare not let him down; we dare not trash his dream and dreams of all those who fell in the war of liberation.
They hoped for an indigenous and egalitarian Zimbabwe, full of empowered masses. But Josiah Magama Tongogara was a husband, a father, a parent.
He was a family man who wished for his wife and his children the best that is obtainable in life. On that front, we owe him a lot, as indeed we similarly owe families of departed comrades and even of surviving ones.
Truthfully, Government programmes meant to fend for widows and children of our departed heroes, meant to give our surviving veterans substantial wherewithal have not gone far enough, have not met some of their basic needs.
This nation owes a lot to those who sacrificed for its coming into being.
I am greatly heartened to know that Josiah’s family, of course, led by his dear wife, Lt- Colonel Angelina Tongogara, has launched a Foundation in memory of him.
The Foundation must make Tongo a living legacy, a living tissue of those values and ideals that liberated us, indeed values and ideals that must continue to inspire our nation.
He deserves that honour. I wish the Tongogara family and the Josiah Magama Tongogara Legacy Foundation every success.
May Josiah’s spirit and soul continue to shape and guide and inspire us all as well as generations to come.
President Mugabe delivered this message on the occasion of the commemoration by the Josiah Magama Tongogara Legacy Foundation at Army Headquarters in Harare on December 26, 2012.
