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Stephen Mpofu, Perspective

A seed planted in fertile soil germinates, grows, flourishes and bears fruit.

However, not all those who lay their hands on the succulent fruit from whatever source have an idea of the journey undertaken by the tree to bear the fruit they now munch delightfully.

Only family members of the person who put the fruit seed under the soil know the trouble that they took nursing the young plant against termites, diseases and adverse weather conditions until it bore the fruits that nourish thousands if not millions of people in their country.

Now you (yes, you) make the armed liberation struggle supplant the tree that bore the fruits which now nourish everyone sluggard and sell outs combined, and you are bound to appreciate the role played by non-combatant cadres and war collaborators in supporting the war of liberation.

Let us liken the armed combatants now being celebrated in a free Zimbabwe as heroes and heroines of a successful liberation struggle to a tap root that carries a tree against all odds to its fruition and the war collaborators and the unarmed cadres as ancillary roots which help the tap root in anchoring the tree to which they supply food for its survival and growth.

And in retrospect, therefore, every unmitigated Zimbabwean patriot is bound to say thumbs up to our President, Cde Emmerson D Mnangagwa, for the decision by the Second Republic in passing the Act which makes non-combatant cadres and war collaborators liberation war heroes.

Right now, the people concerned are being advised and urged to register with relevant Government bodies for the vetting of some of them although no reason is being given for the new move in radio broadcasts by the Government.

It goes without saying that non-combatant cadres as well as the war collaborators played a very, very important behind-the-scenes role in the successful armed revolution that ushered Uhuru to our motherland on April 18, 1980.

The concept “collaborator” refers to a person who works with others towards a common goal.

The information these people supplied to our fighters on the whereabouts of white settler regime soldiers out to eliminate them, the food secretly given to them to beef up the energy and spirits of the fighters bearing arms as well as support of an amoral nature to starving hot-blooded young men out there in the bush among snakes, mosquitoes and sometimes in unbearable weather conditions that might make saints faint.

Forty-one years into Uhuru, some or more of the war collaborators and non-combatant cadres who supported the armed struggle in different ways may have passed on, leaving behind struggling families, or live on and envy the support that the celebrated heroes and heroines of the armed struggle have received during the First Republic and continue to receive in the Second, current Republic.

Wondering why they themselves have not been recognised to receive benefits as also rewards for their behind-the-scenes support of the struggle might or might not in frustration act as loopholes for the enemies return to destabilise the Government of the people they supported in the war and whom they blame for their neglect in these rosy times.

It is against the preceding background that many free Zimbabweans who appreciate the support, however unsung, rendered by war collaborators and non-combatant cadres hope that the registration and vetting of some of these liberation war players will result in their receiving benefits from the state for their contribution to the armed revolution whose fruits everyone else enjoys in a free Zimbabwe today.

This communicologist humbly believes, as many other Zimbabweans no doubt also do, that the armed combatants, the unarmed cadres and war collaborators all played a pivotal role in ensuring that black freedom would not be held in perpetuity under the embargo of those without knees who on their invasion of Zimbabwe and other African countries regarded Africans decked out in loin skins as animals to ride on while exploiting the untapped honey underground in the form of rich minerals to plunder and cart back home to their poor, bitterly cold native countries, whether or not the natives in the continent flowing with milk barely survived hunger or starved to death.

And so a aluta continua to ensure that never again will our beloved Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa become playgrounds for foreign racist exploiters of human rights, privileges and abundant natural resources, the latter an endowment from God the Almighty.