HARARE – The late former vice president Phekelezela Mphoko would likely be buried at his plot in Douglasdale in Bulawayo “as per his wishes,” his family has revealed.
He becomes the latest among the liberation war’s towering figures to reject a National Heroes Acre burial.
Mphoko died aged 84 in India where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
He was immediately declared a national hero by the government, paving way for his interment at the national shrine in Harare where many of the independence war’s top figures are buried.
But like his former boss Robert Mugabe, who was buried at his rural home in Kutama per his wishes, Mphoko reportedly left an instruction to his family that he does not want to be buried at the Heroes Acre.
Family spokesman Ndaba Mphoko confirmed to ZimLive that his brother would be buried at his plot about 10km south-east of Bulawayo.
Ndaba Mphoko said he could not speak authoritatively over the former VP’s repatriation plans from India as this, by virtue of the government declaring him a national hero, meant that the duty of bringing his remains home and subsequent burial was now a “dual responsibility between government and the family”.
He said the family is currently looking to the government to take the lead.
However, in terms of where the former ambassador to Russia and South Africa was to be buried, he confirmed the family wants him buried at his plot “as per his wishes”.
Asked if the government was aware of that, he responded: “That has been intimated to the government that his wishes were to be buried at his plot in Douglasdale, Bulawayo.
“We will perhaps formally submit some written communication to the government to confirm that there was such arrangement in place prior to his passing.”
Mphoko said he was not aware of any reasons why his brother chose to be buried elsewhere other than the national shrine.
“That was his wish and I’m not in a position to know how he came up with that decision. He did not tell me,” he said.
The late Mphoko, who was the country’s vice president between 2014 and 2017, is the latest liberation war hero to snub the cemetery largely occupied by veterans of the 1980s independence war.
Mugabe, who diligently presided over many burials of his war comrades at the elevated cemetery, ironically told his family before he died that he was not going to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
The once powerful leader, ousted in a November 2017 military coup that installed his former right-hand man, incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa, had ironically been accused of cherry-picking loyalists, some far from deserving, to be buried at the national shrine.
Among liberation war luminaries who also refused to be buried at the national heroes acre is the late former Matabeleland North governor Welshman Mabhena, who once said he would not want to be buried among “thieves and murderers”.
Similarly, Dumiso Dabengwa, a former government minister who later turned opposition politician, also refused to be interred at the national shrine, preferring to be buried at his Ntabazinduna home.
The late former PF ZAPU stalwart and ex-minister Tshinga Dube, just like former minister Edgar Tekere, both rejected burial at the National Heroes Acre before they died but were dragged there by the government.
Most liberation war heroes who have snubbed the national shrine have felt ostracised by the country’s leaders who have presided over toxic politics.
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