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Just to sound nice, we often describe some people as humble, selfless, unassuming, diligent, patriotic, easy-going, servants of the people and so on.
These and other positive attributes are especially used in messages to describe the departed. In African culture, we don’t speak ill of the dead so even when criminals, the mean, cowards, sellouts and the haughty pass on, graveside eulogies are always positive. Deep in our hearts and minds we know that we are burying a hard-hearted criminal who terrorised us; we know we are burying a snob who pursued only his personal interests but we never verbalise those negatives.

However, there are very few people who are really humble, selfless, unassuming, patriotic, easy-going, servants of the people who live clean lives. We get to know their good characters during their lives thus we don’t have to lie about them when they pass on.

Cde Absolom Sikhosana, a Zanu-PF Politburo member who died in Bulawayo on Saturday is one of those.

He was humility, honesty and patriotism personified. Unlike many politicians who often want to be seen, their presence felt and acknowledged, Cde Sikhosana was really as ordinary as every one of us. He related well with everyone, big or small, rich or poor, famous or unknown. Yet he was one of the few heroes and heroines who went to war in the 1970s to liberate their country from the clutches of British colonialism. He was one of the few patriots who contributed immensely and consistently to the post-Independence development of the country. Because of the very senior positions he held in Zanu-PF, he brushed shoulders with those at the very top but if one met him they would not think Cde Sikhosana was such a big man.

We honestly do not have the language to accurately describe how great Cde Sikhosana was as a person and as a politician.

President Mnangagwa best captured the man that Cde Sikhosana was when he departed from the norm to simply declare him as a national hero. The tradition is when a citizen who played a big role in the liberation and post-liberation development of the country dies, the President consults widely to forge a broad consensus on the hero status of that person. On some occasions the consultations get lengthy and contentious.

However, in Cde Sikhosana’s case there was no reason for the President to consult anyone. To do so would have been tantamount to belittling Cde Sikhosana.

Who could have said the man did not deserve it? Some people’s credentials are indisputable; they speak loudly for themselves.

It was a profound honour to Cde Sikhosana for the President to single-handedly bestow that lofty posthumous honour on the hero.

“His Excellency the President and First Secretary for Zanu-PF Cde ED Mnangagwa has conferred a National Hero Status to the late Absolom Sikhosana,” said Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu said while delivering the national hero status message to mourners at Cde Sikhosana’s home in Nkulumane on Saturday.

“The late Absolom Sikhosana will be interred at the National Hero’s Acre at a date to be advised. . . . This is a first, and usually the first thing that the President asks me when someone passes on is what his/her province is suggesting. But the first thing that the President said to me was that I start working towards this (national hero status), he never asked about what the province had said. I am only receiving the letter from the province just this evening, which means Cde Sikhosana was a person for the whole nation that did not want to boast about his importance in the party. He was a selfless person; this is why the party had asked him to be the acting chairman in Bulawayo despite being a Politburo member. This never happens but with him it did, he was our chairperson and since his appointment, we never heard of any squabbles in Bulawayo. I hope there won’t be any after this.”

Cde Sikhosana was born on 26 October 1949 in Matobo District under Chief Masuku in Matabeleland South Province. He went to school and qualified in salesperson-ship and public relations. He served as a trade unionist between 1976 and 1977 when he left the country for Zambia for military training. The war veteran served Zanu-PF after Independence as its national secretary for Youth Affairs and later as deputy secretary in the department of implementation of the indigenisation policy.

It is saddening that Cde Sikhosana went so quietly. When people of his stature are unwell, the nation often gets to know about it. Not with this man. He lived a quiet, ordinary life and departed in the same manner.

He leaves a legacy of patriotism, humility, selflessness, diligence, fearlessness, service to the nation and high moral integrity.

The National Heroes’ Acre is meant for people like Cde Sikhosana.