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First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe arrives at the home of Cde Dickson “Chinx” Chingaira in Mabelreign, Harare, yesterday. — (Picture by Justin Mutenda)

Tendai Mugabe, Harare Bureau
THE West imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe to scuttle the land reform programme as they feared its success would be contagious on the African continent, First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe has said.

Addressing mourners at the funeral of Cde Dick Chingaira, popularly known as Cde Chinx in Harare yesterday, Dr Mugabe said the land reform was a huge success and other African countries were already copying it.

“The whites were intimidating us because they feared that if the land reform programme in Zimbabwe is a success story other African countries will follow,” she said.

“Now we can actually say it has been a success story and you can see what is happening in countries like South Africa. That was their (whites) fear. So they wanted to gag us and I am happy Cde Chinx was singing hondo yeminda yatokura. Namibian President was here on State visit and he said President Mugabe you are my source of inspiration. You are my hero. Va(Sam) Nujoma liberated Namibia but my duty as the President of Namibia now is to ensure that land  returns to its rightful owners.

“This was what the whites afraid of. They feared it might be contagious. The issue of land can never be suppressed because population is growing as well as the demand for land.  So land is what Cde Chinx fought for.

“We used to have good life here but sanctions were imposed on us. Everyone knows that sanctions were imposed on us because President Mugabe said he wanted to give land back to the people. Cde Chinx supported that through his music. They said why have you done that? We are whites and superior to you. We cannot be challenged by black people. We also blindly fall into that trap and fight among ourselves. They will be laughing at us.”

Dr Mugabe, who is also the Zanu-PF Women’s League secretary, called for unity among Zimbabweans.

She said divisions and factionalism were counterproductive.

“We should all accept that Cde Chinx has left us but we should remember what he has done for us,” she said.

“Let’s not be selfish. I am saying wherever you are you should remember that there are some people who died for this country. Cde Chingaira has succumbed to cancer but those who participated during the war know what was happening that there were sellouts that were being sent with clothes laced with poison. So we are now having some non communicable diseases.

“We should not forget that there are people who died to liberate this country. At times we tend to forget that. We alter our environment through our actions.

“There are some who forget that unity of purpose is important among Zimbabweans.  We have infighting through factionalism and can we say this is the respect that we are giving to our heroes like Cde Chinx?

“As the First Lady of this country, please let us unite as Zimbabweans. We have children and those children should know the history and ideology of our country.”

She hailed the role that Cde Chinx played during the liberation struggle.

Dr Mugabe said Cde Chinx was a polished musician.

“We feel so much pain when people pirate and reproduce other people’s work,” she said.

“Some people take advantage. When you are singing it requires a lot of thinking until people say this is my best song. It takes time. After composing a song someone just comes and pirates that song and Mukoma Chinx gets nothing.

“There are so many talented artistes — very polished musicians out there. At times they do not even go to music school but it will be just a talent that they have. They then decide to use that talent to earn a living and you see someone who does not want to work pirating that music. That is not good at all. It is called piracy. I think law enforcement agencies must descend heavily on those people.”

Dr Mugabe also counselled the Chingaira family to remain united.