The opposition ZAPU party has slammed the ZANU PF-led government for denying the late former Senator and Bulawayo Metropolitan Minister Eunice Sandi Moyo national heroine status.
Sandi Moyo died at the age of 78 on 16 May at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo, where she was undergoing treatment for hypertension.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa granted her a state-assisted burial, rather than national heroine status.
Speaking at her memorial service at the Bulawayo Amphitheatre on Wednesday ahead of Moyo’s burial at the Lady Stanley Cemetery in the city, ZAPU Secretary General Mthulisi Hanana said the snub should be a signal for former ZAPU members in ZANU PF to return to the party. He said (via CITE):
She was there in Zambia, at Lancaster House, she was there during Gukurahundi, she was there. She was in government all for what? I doubt that this is the Zimbabwe she envisaged.
This snub by the ZANU PF government makes our call, yokuthi bantwana bantwana wozani ekhaya (come back to ZAPU), more relevant.
Hanana said that Sandi Moyo should have been declared a national heroine given her track record in government and the ruling party, adding that once ZANU PF is removed from power, she will be accorded national heroine status.
Sandi Moyo’s uncle, Monti Malunguza representing the Masola Ndlovu family, said she deserved better recognition than a mere state-assisted funeral. He said:
We are also grateful to the government for according to her a state-assisted funeral, however, let me hasten and say we are a little bit disappointed because the role she played pre and post-independence deserved a better recognition than a mere state-assisted funeral.
We are aware of lesser individuals who have been accorded a higher role than her. Anyway, that doesn’t dilute the fact that she is a hero.
She is a hero, mainly throughout the breadth and length of this country, people accept that she played a role and we are grateful for that.
He thanked the City of Bulawayo for giving her a place of burial at Lady Stanley Cemetery. Said Malunguza:
We are as a family grateful to the City of Bulawayo through his worship, the mayor David Coltart and the management led by Christopher Dube for recognising her role in according her a place of burial at Lady Stanley Cemetery, a place reserved for individuals who have a had a positive impact in the lives and stature of the City of Bulawayo…
When (Minister of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development) Monica Mutsvanga came to pay her last respects last Saturday, she said Sandi Moyo moulded her. I know that the present-day politicians came through the hands.
In 2016, Sandi Moyo fell out with ZANU PF after being accused of belonging to the faction led by the then-former Vice President Joice Mujuru. This faction was allegedly plotting to oust former President Robert Mugabe from power.
Her troubles continued when the ZANU PF Women’s League demanded her removal in 2017, alleging she had undermined of the authority of the then-First Lady Grace Mugabe.
Eventually, Sandi Moyo was dismissed from the party, and in January 2018, she lost her parliamentary seat due to her alleged links to the G40 faction.
In 2018, she became one of the founding members of the National Patriotic Front (NPF), a group formed by Mugabe loyalists after his ousting in a military coup in November.
