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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter

GOVERNMENT supports pioneer liberation fighters and Bulawayo province has introduced an outreach programme to visit them as part of efforts to address their concerns.

Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Judith Ncube said this during the burial service of liberation stalwart Cde David Mongwa Moyo yesterday at Bulawayo Provincial Heroes Acre in Nkulumane suburb.

Cde Moyo (97), who was also known as Cde Sharpshoot died last week on Saturday at Mpilo Central Hospital.

He was declared a liberation war hero and accorded a state-assisted burial.

Minister Ncube said Cde Moyo’s contribution to the liberation of the country will never be erased.

 “The legacy left behind by the late David Mongwa Moyo will never fade as we shall remember him for his amazing and sterling works and deeds. As a province, we are very saddened by his death and we want to assure the family that we are with them in this tough time,” she said.

“The Government and my office in particular greatly acknowledge the contributions made by the late David Mongwa Moyo towards the liberation of the country.”

Minister Ncube said Government is concerned with the welfare of former freedom fighters hence her decision to visit some of them.

She said Cde Sharpshoot was proud of his contribution to the liberation of the country and would even narrate his exploits to members of the Joint Operations Command.

 

“I remember ubaba uMoyo bragging to service chiefs about his military prowess. From time to time, we would visit him at home and one day he asked them if they knew how to shoot,” said Minister Ncube.

“He would recount how he wouldn’t miss a target. It was something that he was proud of because he was committed and dedicated to the cause of the nation. We salute him.”

Minister Ncube said they have a programme in her office to take care of pioneers of the liberation struggle. 

The minister said she supported Cde Sharpshoot even during his hospitalisation at Mpilo Central Hospital until his death.

Meanwhile, Zanu-PF Bulawayo province has said it will seek audience with President Mnangagwa after pioneer liberation war fighter Cde Moyo was not accorded national hero status.

Hundreds of mourners converged on the provincial shrine to pay last respects to Cde Sharpshoot with mourners questioning why he was not declared a national hero.

Cde Sharpshoot is credited with inspiring the youths to take up arms and was involved in sabotage works prior to joining the guerrilla armed struggle.

Cde Sharpshoot was nicknamed the hunter during his days at secondary school in Inyathi after he chased and caught a hare with his bare hands.

Mourners felt Cde Sharpshoot was a national hero without questionable credentials.

Politburo member Cde Molly Mpofu said as a province they did all they could for Cde Sharpshoot to be declared a national hero.

“We realise the frustrations and anger of what is happening when we lose some of our brothers and sisters. Some of the things are difficult to say and we are hurting. We tried our best to ensure our brother Cde Sharpshoot is accorded a befitting status,” said Cde Mpofu.

“When the President was here last Sunday, we told him about Cde Sharpshoot’s death and the President demanded that his papers should be processed as soon as possible. This is what we did exactly. But to our surprise on Monday when Politburo was meeting, we were told his papers were in a machine waiting to be printed.”

She said the papers were not submitted until the Politburo meeting ended. 

Cde Mpofu said failure to declare individuals like Cde Sharpshoot national heroes, worried fellow cadres.

She said a wrong precedence has been set.

Cde Mpofu said Politburo members from Bulawayo will have to ask for a meeting with President Mnangagwa to discuss concerns from Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army cadres.

“Baba Tshinga, it’s not going to be an accident for you to be buried here. We will also want you here because a trend has been set. We no longer know how the declaration process is undertaken, I think Baba Tshinga, Minister (Judith Ncube) and myself, without an apology we should seek a dialogue with His Excellency, so that we tell him the feeling of the people from Matabeleland region and former ZPRA forces,” said Cde Mpofu.

Her sentiments were shared by Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube who seemed to blame some party officials for not availing Cde Sharpshoot credentials on time.

“A lot of people are asking why it took a week for Cde Sharpshoot our hero to be buried. When we received the message that he had died we met as Zanu-PF senior officers at Davies Hall. We gathered his biography and we wrote a letter and we informed the President as he was here in Bulawayo,” said Rtd Col Dube.

“The President said he wanted the letter on Monday in Harare. On Monday we were having a Politburo meeting. Meaning it was a perfect meeting to deliberate on his national hero status. But on the day, incwadi dololo (there was no letter). It could not be found. It was said to be with the administration. We kept asking until we had to return to Bulawayo the following day. On Wednesday, we received information that he had been accorded provincial hero status and a Government assisted burial.”

He said he nearly soiled himself in shock when he received information that Cde Sharpshoot had not been declared a national hero.

“This is a man that we thought was an obvious hero due to his works. First of all, he is a pioneer of the liberation struggle. He learnt how to operate a gun before he joined the liberation struggle. That on its own, is a serious plus for him to be declared a national hero. Apart from that he was involved in a series of sabotage work that defines him as a national hero,” he said.

Rtd Col Dube said Cde Sharpshoot was involved in the preparation and initial execution of the liberation struggle.

He said when the liberation war started a lot of young men would commit to joining the struggle but would refuse to be recruited, when Cde Sharpshoot was already in the trenches.

Rtd Col Dube said this forced them to implement Operation Chukuwa, where they forced Zimbabwean men who were in Zambia to join the struggle.

Cde Sharpshoot’s son Cde Diliza Moyo said his father was a true hero who sacrificed his life towards the liberation of the country.

Cde Sharpshoot was born on 18 June 1925 in Matobo area under Chief Malaba.

He attended Siphathe Primary School in 1938 and proceeded to Bango Primary School before moving to Inyathi Secondary School where he completed his secondary education in 1948.

After that he was employed at the Rhodesian Railways as a fireman but due to racial segregation, he left the company and joined Textile Clothing Company.

He started political activism in 1957 under the African National Congress (ANC) and after its ban in 1959 he was detained among its leaders but escaped from detention.

He became one of the founding members of the National Democratic Party and participated in Zhi protests in 1960 that swept Matabeleland and Midlands. 

After being pursued by the Rhodesian Forces, he walked for over 200km with his colleagues to his rural home in Simphathe but did not stay for long as he returned to Bulawayo in 1961 to carry out sabotage works.

He was part of Zhanda or Umkhoba and they destroyed diptanks after observing that the racist colonial regime wanted to use laws to dislodge Africans of their cattle.

Cde Sharpshoot and his group destroyed government records which would have compelled them to pay maize loans.

After the records were destroyed, communities could not be forced to pay anything.

He was arrested in 1961 but with the help from Sikhwili Moyo he was released from prison.

Cde Sharpshoot became an active mobiliser of youths and rallied youths to support Father Zimbabwe Joshua Nkomo when he was facing arrest.

He later joined the armed struggle training in Tanzania before being deployed for further military training in North Korea.

He served with some pioneer liberation war heroes including national heroes Abraham Nkiwane, Misheck Velaphi Ncube among others.

He also operated with revered liberation war fighter Cde Moffat Hadebe.

Cde Sharpshoot conducted ground work for the joint operations between ZPRA cadres and South Africa’s African National Congress military wing Umkhonto WeSizwe.

He participated in the Sipolilo Battle between 1967 and 1968 where he was bombarded and suffered injuries that led him to be repatriated back to Zambia where he remained until the country obtained independence in 1980.