Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Leopold Munhende –
NATIONAL hero, Wereki Sandiyani, who was buried at the Heroes Acre Saturday, could not even afford his medical fees and survived on well-wishers, former Zanu PF youth league commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu has said.
Commenting on Zanu PF’s decision to accord him national hero status, Tsenengamu said it would have been better if government had diverted resources used for his funeral to assist him in his hour of need.
Sandiyani, nom du guerre Phillimon Gabela, one of the Second Chimurenga pioneers succumbed to prostate cancer at Mt. Darwin District Hospital on 25 September, aged 66.
He trained alongside vice president Constantino Chiwenga and late Air Marshall and Agriculture minister Perrance Shiri.
Sandiyani had both his legs amputated in 1975 by Rhodesian forces and paraded to the public so as to instil fear before being jailed, only to be released by late President Robert Mugabe at Independence.
“At some point he could not afford to pay for his medication and we tried to assist individually. He died a pauper in Mt Darwin only to be declared a national hero,” said Tsenengamu on Facebook.
“The thousands being splashed to bury him could have assisted him to access basic healthcare.
“He lived in abject poverty.”
Sandiyani was at one point a National Youth Service (NYS) political instructor but poor health saw him take early retirement.
Responding to Tsenengamu, Zanu PF deputy secretary for youths Tendai Chirau, claimed the party had done enough for him through his compensation and a plot, offered to him during the chaotic land reform programme.
But Tsenengamu shot back saying: “It is sad that murikuzama kuita hurakashi pasipo Cde, dai maiona hupenyu hwavakararama maisadaro. Saka munotaura kuti kuwana compensation ndiko kudii? Zvoreva kuti chii? Musatitsamwise imi. (It is sad that you are just being an activist where it is not necessary. If you had seen the kind of life he was living you would not be saying any of this. What do you mean he was given compensation? What does that mean. Do not anger us.)
Meanwhile, presiding over his burial at the national shrine President Emmerson Mnangagwa described Sandiyani as a principled son of the soil.
“Cde Sandiyani’s death has robbed our nation of a principled son of the soil. He demonstrated unwavering commitment to the cause of our country since the formative years of the Second War of our liberation,” Mnangagwa said.
“He carried the grave and serious wounds sustained during the protracted struggle for our independence, he battled the visible would of war-time trauma, which he only knew.”
