GOVERNMENT is aware of challenges faced by citizens such as unreliable public transport, an unregulated informal market, health and infrastructure issues and is currently addressing them, Acting President Constantino Chiwenga has said.
Addressing mourners during the burial of National Hero and career civil servant, Cde Justin Mupamhanga, also known as "Cde Top Ten," at the National Heroes Acre in Harare yesterday, Acting President Chiwenga said there was need to remain united and focused.
He also slammed corrupt tendencies in society, saying national resources ought to be shared equally and not for them to be a preserve of a few individuals.
The Acting President stressed that fair distribution of the nation's wealth was consistent with the ethos and spirit of the liberation struggle that saw men and women waging a protracted fight against settler regime that resulted in the country's independence.
"The Government is fully aware of the issues that are affecting the citizenry such as unreliable public transport, unregulated informal market, health and infrastructure challenges which are already being addressed. Irrespective of all these, we must remain united and focused. Let us remain vigilant and ready to defend our country, its resources and ideals, including its values and sum-culture. We must not be a generation which betrays or fails our revolution and its ideals purchased through such painful sacrifice," he said.
Acting President Chiwenga said to realise an upper middle-income economy as envisaged by President Mnangagwa, there was need to marshal collective energy towards one goal.
"We must produce more, we must beneficiate all our resources, we must industrialise our economy towards value addition and beneficiation. Above all, we must turn our rural areas into centres of industrial activity, based on each community's resource endowment. Rural industrialisation is one key lesson we learn from successful countries and growing economies. We must lift our people out of degrading and dehumanising poverty, indeed change the trajectory of flow of goods and services back to the countryside where we all began," he said.
Vice President Kembo Mohadi (left) in conversation with Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and Harare Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Charles Tavengwa (right) during the burial of Cde Mupamhanga yesterday
Acting President Chiwenga called upon Zimbabweans to uphold the tenets of the liberation struggle that entailed utilisation of available resources for the greater and common good for everyone.
During the liberation struggle, he said, everyone remained focused, echoing the wartime mantra that called for unity and a collective vision for the nation's future.
"In mind comes the song, tose tichanoguta kumusha muZimbabwe yakasununguka. It was a call which helped us endure hardships, indeed which gave us a glimpse of a brave new world we were all carving through shared sacrifices. We fought for a total Zimbabwe, fought for all its wealth: the minerals, the flora, the fauna, its cultures, its heritage, its identities, its beliefs! Indeed, we fought for its rise as a soaring great nation. The wartime call urged us not to be greedy and selfish, not to be corrupt and egocentric or to be narrow-minded and tribalist. We all swore to a shared future in which everyone had a place on the table, a place in the sun for a culture of equal opportunity where every Zimbabwean served in equal measure. Zvehubvanzu-bvanzu kudya kwemhumhi takazviramba," Acting President Chiwenga said.
"When our President says leaving no one and no place behind, he is reminding us of this wartime covenant, a covenant we must all live by, across generations starting and including our very own. Zimbabwe belongs to all of us. We must share its God-given bounty, share its bounty equally, so no one, not even the weak, the widowed or the orphaned, are displaced or elbowed out by the strong in a mad rat-race to grab unmerited privileges. Corruption has to end".
He said there was need to share resources equitably and work towards the development of the country as was envisaged by Cde Mupamhanga.
"I am highlighting all these so that you understand, Dear Fellow Zimbabweans, that the mantras by which this nation is governed, come from very far; they define us as a people. They capture our deeply-held values, our morals, our aspirations and burdens we carry forward bestowed on us by our fallen heroes. Inhaka yemusiyidzanwa, a timeless heritage which each generation must safeguard jealously, and bequeath to the next one coming after it," said Acting President Chiwenga.
"Our Vision 2030 is for all of us, kwete dzamunoti mbinga! Kuhondo taidziti zvigananda: those who grow big tummies through ill-gotten wealth and questionable morals! A nation is as developed as its weakest man and woman; indeed, as its remotest part."
From left: Ministers Dr Anxious Masuka, Ziyambi Ziyambi, and Dr Jenfan Muswere, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Tsitsi Gezi, Chief Negomo and other dignitaries observe proceedings at the burial of Cde Mupamhanga in Harare yesterday
He said the Mupamhanga family should find solace in knowing that the entire nation stands with them.
The Acting President said it was sad that the burial of Cde Mupamhanga comes barely after the nation mourned three national heroes at the national shrine.
The three are Cdes Chenhamo "Chen" Chakezha Chimutengwende, Major General (Retired) Solomon Siziba and Ambassador John Shumba Mvundura.
Born in Goneso Village, under Chief Ruzane in the Hwedza District of Mashonaland East Province on March 1, 1953, Cde Mupamhanga's father, Patson Mupamhanga, later migrated to Mt Darwin area in search of good farming land which he secured in the so-called African Purchase Area of Chesa.
He was a renowned farmer, which is what earned him that piece of land in another district of the then Rhodesia.
He went to Nyakasikana Primary School and later to St Augustine Anglican Secondary School in Manicaland, where he excelled academically.
Driven by the injustices of the colonial regime, he joined a wave of determined youth who protested against oppression, leading to his ultimate expulsion from school and relocation to Harare, where he completed his education.
Motivated by a profound sense of national duty, Cde Mupamhanga abandoned his studies at the University of Rhodesia in 1975 to join the liberation struggle, becoming part of "The 8," a group of educated and courageous individuals who sacrificed their futures for the country's independence.
These included Cde Chris Mutsvangwa, Justice George Mutandwa Chiweshe, the late Ambassador John Mayowe, the late Cde Willard Duri, Dr Masimba Mwazha, lawyer Cde Sobuza Gula Ndebele and the late Cde Neville Dembetembe who fell in battle during the Struggle.
Cde Mupamhanga's extraordinary talents made him part of the training Team at the Wampua Political College at Chimoio Camp.
His mastery in Portuguese language often saw him serving as a translator for pivotal meetings involving the late President Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Mozambique's late President Cde Samora Moises Machel.
Post-Independence in 1980, the ruling party authorised him to remain in Mozambique to complete his degree in Economics at Eduardo Mondlane University and returned in 1983 to serve in various strategic roles, significantly shaping the country's economic landscape.
On his return, Cde Mupamhanga joined the President's Department under the Economics Division. He was then posted to the United Kingdom Mission from 1994 as a Minister Counsellor.
He took advantage of the posting and enrolled for a Masters in Business Administration at Middlesex University. His dissertation looked at strategies to improve Foreign Direct Investment to Zimbabwe. Later, he was recalled to Head Office where he was tasked to transform the Economics Division into a full-fledged Branch.
The late former President Mugabe would later appoint Cde Mupamhanga to the sensitive post of Secretary for Energy and Power Development in December 2002 and tasked to address critical challenges like the then prevailing fuel shortages and restructure vital energy and power institutions such as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and the introduction of the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA).
In times of the El Nino induced droughts that have from time to time devastated the Southern African Region, Cde Mupamhanga was part of a Taskforce that included the late Minister of Agriculture as then Airforce Commander, Air Chief Marshall Perrance Shiri, late Lieutenant General Amoth Chin'ombe, then Chief of Staff in the Defence Forces, and Ngonidzashe Masoka, the then Secretary for Agriculture.
The Taskforce was charged with the responsibility of importing grain to avert hunger in the country. Acting President Chiwenga said the taskforces comprised hard-headed trouble-shooters.
In 2012, Cde Mupamhanga was appointed Deputy Chief Secretary Responsible for Monitoring and Evaluation in the Office of the President and Cabinet.
Upon his retirement around 2019, he took up influential roles in Kuvimba Mining House and was also adviser to the late Minister of Agriculture (Air Chief Marshal (Ret) Shiri.
Acting President Chiwenga was accompanied by wife, Colonel Miniyothabo Baloyi-Chiwenga.
Other dignitaries that attended the event include Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Defence Minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza, Cabinet Ministers, Zanu PF Politburo members, Service Chiefs, diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe and senior Government officials.