Number of political elites dying of coronavirus growing with every passing day across Southern African region Jeffrey Moyo | 27.01.2021
HARARE, Zimbabwe
It never rains, but pours for Zimbabwe’s governing politicians who are falling prey to COVID-19 one after another. Leaders across parts of Southern Africa are struggling against the pandemic as the deadly virus keeps claiming the lives of political elites.
In July last year, Perence Shiri, Zimbabwe’s agriculture minister, died of COVID-19.
On Jan. 15, Ellen Gwaradzimba, Zimbabwe’s minister for provincial affairs for Manicaland Province, succumbed to coronavirus and was followed in the same week by Morton Malianga, the country’s deputy finance minister in the 1980s.
2021-01-27 15:05:36 GMT2021-01-27 23:05:36(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
HARARE, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) Zimbabwe s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga on Wednesday officiated the historic triple burial of three senior officials who succumbed to COVID-19 last week.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo, Transport Minister Joel Biggie Matiza and former prisons chief Paradzai Zimondi were laid to rest at the National Heroes Acre in the capital Harare.
Moyo, 61, died last Wednesday, while Matiza and Zimondi both died on Friday.
The three were veterans of the liberation struggle who fought for Zimbabwe s independence against British colonial rule in the 1970s.
Their burial follows the double burial last week of Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Ellen Gwaradzimba and veteran nationalist Morton Malianga who also succumbed to COVID-19 related complications.
By Staff Reporter
ACTING President Constantino Chiwenga will Wednesday return into the public spotlight and is expected to preside over the burials of three top government officials at the National Heroes Acre in Harare who succumbed to Covid-19.
Foreign Minister Subusiso Moyo, Transport Minister Joel Biggie Matiza and former Zimbabwe Prisons Correctional Services boss Paradzai Zimondi died last week and were declared national heroes.
However, Chiwenga, who also doubles as the health minister, was last week forced to take a break feeling unwell with George Charamba, the presidency spokesperson confirming the acting president was ordered to take a rest President Emmerson Mnangagwa as he looked “worse for wear” following the deaths of some relatives and associates who succumbed to Covid-19.
New dispensation, hagiography, Orwellian historical revisionism
guest column:Gibson Nyikadzino
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, and every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day-by-day and minute-by-minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the party is always right.”
The above is an extract from George Orwell’s famous book 1984. Though written in 1984, Orwell’s totalitarian vision of a futuristic world has all-too-real and eerie similarities of the real situation obtaining in Zimbabwe.
As a result, a critical danger is posed by Zimbabwe’s “new dispensation” in its active participation to reconstruct history by presenting events through a strong nationalistic and extremist tendency as portrayed in Orwellian narratives.
By Staff Reporter
THREE national heroes, Sibusiso Moyo, Joel Biggie Matiza and Paradzai Zimondi will all be interred at the National Heroes Acre in Harare Wednesday.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to preside over the burials.
The burial of the three men, who succumbed to Covid-19 last week, will be the first in which more than two national heroes are interred at the same time.
Last week, Mnangagwa also presided over the double burial of Manicaland provincial minister Ellen Gwaradzimba and former deputy minister Morton Malianga.
Gwaradzimba also succumbed to Covid-19.
Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe announced the triple burial of Moyo, the Foreign Minister who died last Wednesday, Transport Minister Matiza and former Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Commissioner General, Zimondi who both died last Friday.