Heroes Acre expansion on the cards

Heroes Acre expansion on the cards

Brian Rungano Temba

Cabinet has approved architectural designs for the Second Phase of the National Heroes Acre extension works.

The national shrine where liberation war heroes are buried is running out space necessitating the expansion, whose designs were presented by Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe.

At its establishment, the National Heroes Acre had 195 graves, 42 years later 161 graves have been utilized, leaving 35.

When the works are complete, there will be an additional 104 graves.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the works are not limited to expansion alone, but also the general outlook of the space.

“Cabinet also directed the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage to ensure that the national shrine is refurbished.

Provincial and district heroes acres will also be spruced up. Cabinet also discussed the need to maintain our heroes monuments outside the country,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

This follows an outcry by orphaned and widowed families of Provincial and District Heroes who have called for equal treatment of all heroes as most do not have Tombstones yet.

The exercise of placing polished Granite tombstones with murals of the late heroes had been discontinued following a lack of funding towards the acquiring of the tombstones.

The programme is undertaken by National Defence Forces, War Veterans Association and the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

“The national shrine will also have a Zimbabwe Liberation War Museum in its vicinity, to memorialise Zimbabwe’s colonial and liberation experiences together with the individual contributions of the heroes and heroines interred at the shrine.

The National Heroes Acre is a symbol and celebration of Zimbabwe’s triumph over adversities associated with dispossession and colonialism,” she added.