After nearly two years of stripping former President Robert Mugabe of the traditional ZANU PF salutation of “comrade” to a less revolutionary and less ZANU PF “Mr,” State Media and President Emmerson Mnangagwa himself this morning bestowed the title back to the founding leader of independent Zimbabwe.

Mugabe was stripped of the “Comrade” title in 2017 shortly after he was removed from power by Mnangagwa in a military coup.

The title was further thrown away from the liberation war leader later in the same year when he openly declared that he was going to back opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa in the 2018 elections against Mnangagwa.

He was immediately called a sellout with the War Veterans taking the lead in the regard and demanding that Harare International Airport be relieved of Mugabe’s name.

The war veterans denounced Mugabe and his wife, former first lady Grace Mugabe for allegedly working with opposition leaders Chamisa and Tendai Biti to cause chaos in the country. The former freedom fighters said they would rather have the airport named after late hero Herbert Chitepo.

Speaking at a press conference at the time, ZNLWVA secretary-general Victor Matemadanda said

“We are going to demand the removal of Robert Mugabe’s name from the international airport in Harare. Tomorrow we are going to Harare international airport to demand the removal of Mugabe’s dirty name. Mugabe has failed. We cannot have the face of Zimbabwe to the world – given the name of a last minute traitor. We don’t want.”

Announcing the death of Mugabe all state media outlets on Friday morning reinstated Mugabe with the title.