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Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter
WAR veterans should have funeral cover to ensure that they have befitting burials, Bulawayo War Veterans’ Association Chairman Cde Cephas Ncube has said.

Cde Ncube said this at the burial of two war veterans, Cdes Moses Sibanda and Judea Ndabezinhle Mhlanga at the Bulawayo Provincial Heroes’ Acre yesterday.

“I urge all of us war veterans to subscribe for funeral cover or at least be a member of a burial society so that one can have a decent send off. It is sometimes embarrassing for someone who fought for the freedom of this country to be given an unbefitting send-off that is below his stature.

“Let us all put our houses in order and take out funeral policies so that we don’t shame our families when we are dead and they cannot afford to bury us in dignity,” said Cde Ncube.

“We are currently not getting much from Government in terms of funeral benefits. We are not getting any assistance. We are suffering. Times are hard, in as much as we feel that we deserve better, let us maintain our dignity as war veterans by doing for ourselves what we can.”

Cde Sibanda who was 56 succumbed to an undisclosed illness. He joined the armed struggle in 1977 at Nampundu Transit Camp where he was then taken to Angola where he did his military training at Mboma Camp.

He was then deployed to the front at Binga, Lupane and Gokwe.

After independence, Cde Sibanda was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army at 4.2 Infantry Battalion in Masvingo. In 1985, he moved to Darwendale where he served for 10 years before he went back to 4.2 Infantry Battalion before retiring in 1996 on medical grounds. He is survived by a wife and six children.

Cde Mhlanga was born in 1955 in Nkayi District. He was born in a family of 22 children. He joined the armed struggle in the early 70s. He was then deployed to the front where he operated in Tsholotsho and Madlambudzi areas.

He was attested into the army in 1980 and was based in Mt Darwin as a sergeant.

Cde Mhlanga was elevated to the rank of major upon retirement in 2003. — @andile_tshuma