The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
The country partly paid the debt it owes to rural communities, who bore the brunt of the liberation struggle, by hosting this year’s Independence Day celebrations in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central Province, and will continue to do so until all of them physically host the commemorations and are satisfactorily developed, President Mnangagwa has said.
Hosting the event in far-flung rural districts is also expected to ensure that development cascades to areas that lag behind.
Last week, the main Independence Day celebrations were held in Mt Darwin, marking the first time they have been hosted by a rural district.
Last year, the event was held outside the capital, Harare, for the first time since 1980 when Bulawayo was the host.
Writing in his column in The Sunday Mail, the President thanked Mashonaland Central Province, churches, traditional leaders, artistes and veterans of the liberation struggle, among them former Vice President Joice Mujuru, who graced the event.
“Over those two happy days (April 17 and April 18), we took commemorations of our hard-won Independence back to the province, and to communities that had suffered longest and endured some of the worst atrocities for that glorious day to come,” said President Mnangagwa.
“We owed it to them, and I am happy that this troubling debt has finally been symbolically paid, so many years into our Independence.
“Except it is a debt which remains partly paid until all rural communities that make up our nation, and which, thus, played a direct role in the national struggle as it took its protracted, tortuous and bloody course, have had a chance to concretely own and physically host our Independence Day.
“And until development reaches every nook and cranny of the remotest of our rural areas, themselves theatres of the War of Liberation.”
Mt Darwin was specifically chosen because it is located in the province where communities suffered longest and endured some of the worst atrocities during the country’s war of liberation.
Going forward, he said, the precedent that has now been set must be used to ensure that all communities own and play host to national events “so none is left behind and uninvolved”.
“As we decentralise the hosting of these national events, we must also leave commemorative footprints in these communities by way of new structures and modern amenities, which will forever remind those communities that once upon a time, they hosted our whole nation as it remembered and celebrated,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said the idea of revolving venues for festivities marking our Independence came to him a few years ago when he visited Uganda, where it has become the norm.
He also thanked churches, traditional leaders, the security establish-
ment and war veterans, among others, for making the historic event a success.
“We have taken the decision that they must be in attendance during all our national days. The debt we owe them is irrepayable. This is the least we can do to honour them,” he said.
Opposition political parties, collectively grouped under the umbrella of Political Actors Dialogue, were also lauded for making the day “truly national”.
“These are leaders who, soon after our 2018 elections, took the positive and laudable step of joining hands with the winning Party and our Government to push forward peace, unity and development in our nation. They boldly decided on, and charter, a new course for our nation, previously threatened and held back by election-related rancour and divisions,” added the President.
“Because of that noble stance which they took, the reflex of reconciling winners and losers after any election is gathering root in our national politics and political character.
“With time, it shall abide. Indeed, such broad, non-partisan participation makes all our national events truly national, embodying the sense and conviction that there is always a united nation after every plebiscite.”
* See P13
