The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) has described the way in which the late ZIPRA Commander and intelligence supremo, Dumiso Dabengwa was treated during the Gukurahundi as a mistake.
Dabengwa was together with fellow ZIPRA Commander Lookout Masuku incarcerated in 1983 at the height of Gukurahundi massacres for four years on alleged treason. He was later released and installed the Home Affairs Minister in President Robert Mugabe’s administration.
Douglas Mahiya, the spokesperson of the war veterans’ representative body said that the organisation sympathised with the way Dabengwa was treated. He said:
We do sympathize, you cannot have a process where no mistakes are made. Whatever is perfect today is out of a lot of mistakes in the process, so whatever mistake was done is not what we should always highlight and forgetting the good things that would have been done. So we are talking about Dabengwa’s personal life commitment and result which is political independence for the people of Zimbabwe.
When you do not make mistakes you are not doing anything. People who do not do anything do not make mistakes.
Mahiya added that Dabengwa’s national hero status was an obvious thing. He, however, entreated the ZNLWVA Bulawayo Province to formally write to the ZANU PF Politburo requesting the former ZIPRA commander be declared a national hero.
The former Home Affairs Minister passed away yesterday in Kenya on his way back home from India where he was seeking treatment for a liver ailment.
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