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(HERALD) Negotiations to buy Chitepo’s Lusaka house at advanced stage

Negotiations to buy Chitepo’s Lusaka house at advanced stage
Herald Reporter

THE Government has started negotiations to buy the former house of the late nationalist and Zanu chairman, Cde Herbert Chitepo, in Lusaka, Zambia, as part of its plans to consolidate and document the country’s history and heritage, an official has said. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe executive director Dr Godfrey Mahachi said plans to purchase the house were at an advanced stage as negotiations with the current owner had begun in earnest.

Dr Mahachi, who disclosed this in an interview with The Herald, is part of an advance team that had come here ahead of a delegation comprising former Zipra cadres and some of the relatives who lost their kin during the liberation struggle, to tour the graves and pay homage to their heroes.

"It is part of our programme to purchase the house. We have had correspondences with the current owners of the property who have agreed in principle to dispose the house to us," said Dr Mahachi.

"We got assistance from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development in Zimbabwe so that they liaise with their counterpart here in Zambia for the valuation of the house. That has since been done. We are now proceeding with thrashing out outstanding issues and we are hopeful that very soon we would have completed negotiations."

Dr Mahachi said the house would be used as a museum and this would also fit in with the plan by relatives of fallen heroes to annually visit the graves of the freedom fighters.

"When we purchase the residence, we will make it a museum. Very close to it is a house in which former Zambian president Cde Kenneth Kaunda stayed and we want all this as part of our heritage," he said.

He said the house was rebuilt after it was destroyed by Rhodesian forces and was sold to a local family which had already shown willingness to sell it to Zimbabwean authorities.

"We need to have these deliberate and regular visits to these shrines and allow people to talk their experiences.

"This is part of memory building which we should impart to our future generations. This will ensure that the future generation will not lose memory of the contribution and realise the need to preserve the country’s history and heritage," he said.

"We need to make these pilgrimages an annual event as that will give value and meaning to these places. The places would serve as points of contact and reconnection. People here are heroes just as the heroes we have at the National Heroes Acre or provincial heroes acres," said Dr Mahachi.

Cde Chitepo, who was a lawyer by profession, died in 1975 in a blast from a bomb that was planted in his car.

The Zambian government has subsequently named a hospital in the capital in honour of the sterling contribution he made. The late national hero abandoned the lucrative legal profession to fight for the liberation of Zimbabwe.

Labels: HERBERT CHITEPO, THE HERALD, ZAMBIA, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 3:35 AM