This week's issues
| MP wants national heroes law changed |
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| Written by GIFT PHIRI |
| Saturday, 14 November 2009 14:47 |
 HARARE – MDC legislator Magalela Felix Sibanda has moved a motion in Parliament calling for changes to the National Heroes Act to allow the setting up of a non-partisan committee to determine and confer national hero status on deserving citizens. Presently President Robert Mugabe and the politburo of his Zanu (PF) party decide on who to declare national hero, a situation that has seen several deserving citizens not being recognised as heroes despite making immense contribution to the national cause. Zanu (PF) has also used its unilateral powers to confer national hero status on some dubious characters most of them allies or members of Mugabe’s party. Sibanda has proposed changing Chapter 10:16 of the National Heroes Act that empowers Mugabe to designate any citizen he considers deserving of the title as a national, provincial or district hero of Zimbabwe. The MDC legislator’s motion calls for the setting up of a committee to find out how a non-partisan body could be established and mandated to determine and confer hero status on all deserving citizens across the political divide. The motion also calls recognition of other deserving citizens from other sectors such as industry, commerce, business, sports, farming, mining, medicine and education instead of reserving the accolade for those who played a leading role during the country’s liberation struggle. Sibanda’s motion comes amid recriminations between MDC and Zanu (PF) over respect for national heroes with Mugabe’s party accusing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of snubbing the recent burial of liberation war veteran Misheck Chando at the national hero’s acre shrine. Tsvangirai did not attend the burial of the national hero saying he was not consulted when the decision to confer hero status on Chando was made. |
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