The funeral of Joshua Nkomo, Heroes' acre.

When Solomon Tavengwa died recently, he was immediately declared a National Hero, and buried at the National Heroes Acre at Warren Hills. Many raised eyebrows and queried the rush to honour this man, remembered primarily for the unprecedented corruption which took hold of the administration of Harare during his tenure as mayor. He allowed the city infrastructure and services to deteriorate to an alarming level while millions of dollars of public funds ended up in private pockets. In spite of being a ZANU PF nominee, he had to be removed and replaced by a hand-picked Commission. Is this the calibre of our so-called heroes today? What has happened?

There was a time when we knew who our heroes were, and we buried them with honour and respect wherever they fell. We did not need a special burial site to keep them in our minds and hearts, to appreciate the contributions they made to our liberation, to admire their noble qualities and to emulate their sacrifices. We did not need ZANU PF to tell us who they were.

After Independence, when a Heroes Acre was proposed, we did not object to gathering our heroes together in one place where we could honour and remember them as a group, the makers of our freedom, an inspiration to the younger generation to carry on the struggle to achieve justice in a new Zimbabwe. We brought there those who had died before the day of liberation, some of the truly greats of our history - Herbert Chitepo, Jason Moyo, Alfred Mangena, Josiah Tongogara, Leopold Takawira. And as their colleagues in the struggle died through the 80's and 90's we took them to join their comrades at Warren Hills: Masotsha Ndlovu, T.G. Silundika, Maurice Nyagumbo, Willie Musarurwa, Sydney Malunga, George Nyandoro, Edward Ndlovu, Joshua Nkomo, Simon Muzenda and most recently Eddison Zvobgo. It was fitting that they lie together, for it was by their efforts, both inside and outside Zimbabwe, that colonial rule was conquered. We did not raise issues of what they did after Independence, because we knew that all had made their contributions, amid personal sacrifice, to achieve that goal.

But like so much else in our "free" Zimbabwe, it was not long before ZANU PF managed to tarnish this noble idea. They began to confuse heroes with ZANU PF members. As more and more wanted the honour of being buried at the national shrine, not to mention the financial benefits for the surviving family, the criteria for hero's status became blurred. Some government ministers who died had not actively participated during the war, either as politicians, as detainees or in the military. At best they could be called sympathisers. But they too were declared heroes. And then there was the difficulty of how to handle ZANU PF personalities who died in "mysterious circumstances", accompanied by public conviction that they had fallen victim to internal party power struggles. They too were recognised as heroes in some kind of bizarre compensation for having been in someone else's way.

Doubtless no one really complained about the recognition of Bernard Chidzero, a long-serving Finance Minister, prominent even internationally. But Cain Nkala? An undistinguished guerrilla, unknown until he was charged with kidnapping an opposition election agent in 2000. The complete story of his subsequent murder may never be known, but does being murdered qualify one for hero status? And what about Chenjerai Hunzvi, chairperson of the war veterans who probably never had military training and certainly never served in the front. His main claim to fame was his thuggish attacks on white farmers and his torture of opposition supporters in Budiriro during the 2000 election campaign. He is known to have been so abusive of his wife that she had to escape back to her native Poland, and he is also alleged not only to have assisted others to loot the War Victims Compensation Fund, but to have misappropriated large amounts of money belonging to the war vets whom he claimed to represent. He died before he could be punished for his crimes, and perhaps he never would have been, but to make this man a hero surely sullies the term itself.

And then there were those others who were left out. The most prominent of these was Ndabaningi Sithole. Clearly he was one of the key figures in the formation of ZANU and an early leader. Yes, he abandoned the armed struggle and joined Smith before that struggle was completed, but why then is George Nyandoro buried at the Acre while Sithole is not? Could this be a tribal issue? Or is it because he chose to withdraw from politics after Independence? It was acceptable to betray the struggle but to oppose ZANU PF was not. Would we be wrong to predict that James Chikerema will be declared a hero, while Abel Muzorewa will not? The political cleric certainly had his role to play, even though he later ended up on the wrong side, just like Sithole, Nyandoro and Chikerema.

Identifying heroes is seriously problematic. Heroes are surely outstanding individuals, the unusual, the remarkable persons who have done important things for a country while sacrificing their own interests. They are people who can provide us with a role model, persons we would want to emulate, or teach our children to emulate. As the Oxford dictionary puts it a hero is a person "admired for achievements and noble qualities". This raises several questions:

1. What type of achievements are worth recognising?
2. What noble qualities must be present before a person can be described as a hero?
3. Who decides that any Zimbabwean can be honoured as a hero?

Because it is difficult to classify achievements as heroic, ZANU PF came up with criteria based on participation in the war and membership of party structures at higher levels. A person who had belonged to the national party structures would be declared a National Hero, one who had a provincial post would qualify for burial at the Provincial Heroes Acre, and one at district level would become a district hero. Equivalent categories were created for those who served in the military.

But surely this is ridiculous. Does it mean those who did not hold positions were never heroic? That cannot be accepted. Furthermore, there are plenty of people who hold office or join an army who never do anything the slightest bit heroic. They have no noteworthy achievements and have few noble qualities. Heroes cannot be identified according to positions, they must be identified according to their outstanding deeds and their admirable personal qualities. Even ZANU PF recognised this and dropped the provincial and district hero distinction eventually.

In the best of situations it would be difficult to select those who fit the description of a hero, out of the many thousands who contributed to the liberation victory. But sadly, like everything else in this unhappy country, the decisions have become politicised and privatised. A deceased who died belonging to ZANU PF is now virtually the only one who qualifies; but even then selection is done by the Politburo, and hero status will likely depend on whether someone there knows you or not. The Provincial Executive of ZANU PF recommends hero status for someone coming from their Province, but the Politburo can still refuse, as they did when Swazini Ndlovu was rejected and then after burial at the Provincial Heroes Acre in Bulawayo was hastily declared a national hero when the refusal was threatening to split the party.

What should be a national process has been appropriated by ZANU PF and its Politburo, and is made to serve the political interests of the current ZANU PF hierarchy. It no longer matters what a person did during the war; it matters what their position is now in relation to current ZANU PF policy objectives. And the National Heroes Acre has become polluted with the graves of crooks, cheats, even murderers, whose noble qualities are non-existent and achievements only destructive. Those genuine heroes who lie with them are certainly insulted and uncomfortable, deserving of better company.

Surely it is time to call a halt to the perpetuation of such a travesty of originally good intentions. The first constructed graves are all occupied, and we could have drawn the process to a close. But instead of seizing the opportunity to close this chapter, ZANU PF has prepared another 60 graves. The scramble for undeserved recognition will continue. While there are doubtless still some "greats" who could qualify as genuine heroes, we can be sure that the majority will be rogues and charlatans, betrayers rather than heroes of the struggle.

Heroes Acre at Warren Hills is now a true reflection not of the history of our liberation, but of the betrayal of our Independence. It was the sacred resting place of those who devoted their lives to achieving freedom and a better life for Zimbabweans; but it has become a place where those true heroes are forced to witness the destruction of what they struggled to achieve. ZANU PF has appropriated Heroes Acre, turning it into a cemetery for the human instruments of murder and corruption and oppression through which they have stolen Zimbabwe from the Zimbabwean people.

We do not want a Heroes Acre which diminishes the memory of our true heroes. Our true heroes we will know, will keep in our hearts, and with or without graves and cemeteries they will inspire us to overcome the tragedy that Zimbabwe has become, and achieve the vision of freedom and justice which drove thousands to join the liberation war.