THE late Victoria Chitepo has been accorded national heroine status, with a visibly grieving President Mugabe describing her as an exemplary woman of integrity worth emulating.
Formally announcing the conferment of hero status to mourners at her Harare residence yesterday, Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Ignatius Chombo said Chitepo (88) was unanimously declared a national heroine after all Politburo members agreed she deserved the honour.
President Mugabe gave an emotional tribute, describing her as a “natural hero” and mother figure always prepared to lend a helping hand. He chronicled the role she played during the liberation struggle from the time she looked after comrades in Tanzania, where she lived with her late husband, founding Zanu Chairman Herbert Chitepo. President Mugabe said after her husband died in 1975, Chitepo remained committed to the liberation struggle and continued to work tirelessly for the party.
“She has gone now but she has written her own page or book of the struggle. She had borne quite a difficult burden pakafa murume, she was shattered but she still felt she did not only have children to look after, she had, also, the party her husband had worked for to care for. What her husband left undone she would do now, the fulfillment of the ambition and the mission which her husband left unfilled, she fulfilled it all.”
President Mugabe said Chitepo, who died at home last Friday as she prepared to attend Zanu-PF’s Central Committee, was steadfastly loyal.
“Tarasikirwa na mai. Vanga vari mai vanyerere asi vari mai vemusangano. Ndakanzwa kuti vakanga vaita shungu yekuti vauye kumusangano wedu we Central Committee nezuro, ndokubva zvakona vakafira mu bathroom.”
President Mugabe called her a graceful peacemaker, full of love and humility.
“I am sure every one of us here has a different story, everyone here has her own story to tell about Mai Chitepo; that story will always have an element of love, an element of her preparedness to assist, (her) charitable disposition, wanting to assist and wanting reconciliation. She never was quarrelsome. No, never. She was never involved in conflicts; she also always encouraged harmony in the party, dialogue in the party and togetherness in the party,” the President said.
He encouraged the Chitepo family to take comfort and reassured them he would stand by them.
President Mugabe said First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe was a close friend of the late heroine but was unable to attend as she was in the Far East with her daughter Mrs Bona Chikore, who is about to give birth.
Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he was one of the comrades looked after by Chitepo.
“She was a mother to all of us. In March and April 1963 I was one of the people taken to Panga Tanzania and stayed at her house. She took care of me, just as was the case with many other comrades because she was a mother to all cadres. The family will also be pleased to learn that the journey she travelled with President Mugabe before and after the liberation struggle lasted for close to 70 years,” he said.
In a statement yesterday, Zanu-PF spokesperson Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo said Chitepo was a unifier. A number of ministers, senior government and party officials were at her residence yesterday. Chitepo is survived by her four children, Nomusa, Zanele, Thokozile and Kule. Mourners are gathered at 38 Quorn Drive in Mt Pleasant, Harare.-State Media