HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Heroes Acre is being manned by war veterans with a crude hatred for the opposition and uncouth language that has no place at a shrine supposed to espouse the national heritage with dignity and honour.
A visit last week was punctured by uncouth and rude tour guides who constantly made rude remarks against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, as if he was the subject of our visit. Tourists, who were part of our group, were obviously put off by the remarks, and said the tour guide’s language did not add any value to the tour.
Amid the verbal abuse we suffered at the hands of the tour guides, The Zimbabwean made startling observations. There are two graves “technically reserved” for President Robert Mugabe and his second wife Grace, but the two pro-Zanu (PF) tour guides accompanying us were reluctant to say so outright.
The two blank tombstones are next to the grave of Sally Mugabe, the much-loved First Lady who died in 1992.
The tour guides, whose party Zanu (PF) has been in power since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, obviously know that Mugabe is mortal. But it seems they cannot quite come to terms with the fact that their President, like all mortals, will one day cease to exist.
The guide was however overly eager to say whose body “would never” be laid to rest at Heroes’ Acre – opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s.
“My brother, can you imagine Tsvangirai being buried alongside these heroes,” he said, taking us past the graves of Joshua Nkomo and war veterans leader Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi, among others.
“This man (Tsvangirai) does not belong here. What has he ever done for his country? What has he sacrificed for the liberation of his people?”
Tsvangirai, the tour guide said, is an “imperialist stooge” who takes his orders from Britain and the US. They say they will never allow someone like him to “dishonour” the Heroes’ Acre.
The two apparatchiks are different in their own ways: one is a liberation war veteran, a retired army officer and a party loyalist still in search of a farm; the other a youngish Border Gezi youth militia graduate, pumped full with Zanu (PF) propaganda. They are united in their faith in Zanu (PF) and in Mugabe.
But what about the thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans who vote MDC, we ask? The Zanu (PF) guides ignore our question. To them, the idea that there are people who find parties other than theirs attractive is as much an anathema as talking about Mugabe’s grave. You know it’s there; you just don’t talk about it.