. reconciliation shown as superficial Sibanda, a veteran trade unionist and one of the founding leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999, died last week after succumbing to cancer at age 66.
His smaller breakaway MDC group had requested Mugabe, who chairs the Cabinet, to consider according Sibanda national hero status, but this was quickly turned down and immediately renewed calls to review the process that critics say has been turned into a partisan affair.
Under the National Heroes Act, Cabinet is the authority vested with powers to declare heroes, but Mugabes Soviet-style Zanu (PF) politburo, a clique of the veteran leaders loyalists, has since independence in 1980 held sway over who becomes a hero.
If you had any doubt that there is no unity among the political parties despite the pretence by Zanu (PF), this is your evidence, John Makumbe, a veteran political commentator and Mugabe critic said.
Not Zanu (PF)
There is no doubt that Gibson (Sibanda) is a candidate for national hero but he was not a member of Zanu (PF) politburo.
The move by Mugabe, whose Zanu (PF) politburo took less than fifteen minutes to declare his sister Sabina a national hero, brought to the fore the superficial unity within the coalition and thrown open old differences between the 86-year-old octogenarian and his two coalition partners.
The unity administration, which was formed last year in February after pressure from the regional Southern African Development Community, has stabilised the once wrecked economy and reigned hyperinflation but political intolerance remains high while real unity is ever elusive.
The snub by Mugabe will intensify calls for the country to immediately set up an agreed multi-party committee that will determine who is accorded hero status.
Any meaning of a hero, either a dictionary meaning or political interpretation would fit Sibanda. There is no debate at all, Nelson Chamisa, spokesman in Tsvangirais MDC said.
We once again implore our brothers in Zanu (PF) to see reason. Every Zimbabwean qualifies to be a hero.
Sibanda was deputy leader of the breakaway MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara after falling out with long time comrade, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in 2004. The two were compatriots from their days as leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
Not one of us
Sibanda, whose gentle demeanour won him friends on both sides of the political divide, seemed to have paid the price for opposing Mugabe while in the MDC and more for leading a potent ZCTU that irritated Mugabe when it carried the countrys most damaging strikes in the 1990s when Zanu (PF) was still entrenched in power.
The MDC is the only party that has ever come close to unseating Mugabe from power.
Mugabe, whom critics say wants to be a president for life, is known for keeping grudges and never forgiving adversaries who cross his path.
The majority of heroes buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare and around the countrys ten provinces are from Zanu (PF), with a few from Joshua Nkomos PF-Zapu, which merged with Mugabes Zanu (PF) in 1987.
The message from Mugabe is very clear: if you are not one of us (Zanu PF) you dont qualify to be a hero. That smacks of arrogance, said Makumbe.
A visibly angry Mutambara told journalists in Harare last Wednesday that his party did not recognise the authority of Zanu (PF) to declare national heroes or heroines.
We do not recognise the Zanu (PF) politburo as an authority in determining who becomes a national hero, so we reject lock, stock and barrel the decision by the Zanu (PF) politburo that Gibson Sibanda is not a national hero,” Mutambara said.
“Robert Mugabe and his party have no authority and locus standi in this country to determine who is a hero and who is not a hero, added Mutambara.
The issue of how to nominate national heroes is one of the outstanding issues raised by the two MDC formations but an agreement to set up a committee comprising members from the three political parties in the government has not been honoured by Mugabe.
Expecting too much
Regional leaders a fortnight ago avoided confronting Mugabe to honour terms of a 2008 political agreement, and instead set a deadline for the full implementation of the power-sharing pact.
Mugabe was forced into the power-sharing arrangement when his party lost its majority in parliament in March 2008 but has always sought to undermine his partners by treating them as junior members in the government.
He has previously labelled Tsvangirai a pathetic puppet and says the MDC was created by Britains political elite to remove him from power as punishment for seizing white-owned commercial farms to resettle blacks.
Maybe we need to ask ourselves whether we are not expecting too much from a man who has never accepted the MDC as an indigenous party, said Eldred Masunungure, who chairs local political think-tank Mass Public Opinion.
He is a man with a lot of pride and according Sibanda the status of a hero would be to embrace the MDC and accept that the party has contributed something to this country, which he does not accept, said Masunungure said.
Post published in: News