BULAWAYO-BASED Mafela Trust is planning a birthday bash for Moffatt Hadebe, the African credited with firing the first gunshot in inland Rhodesia to start the armed struggle, at his rural home in Gwanda.
By KHANYILE MLOTSHWA
Hadebe will be turning 80 on April 15.
According to Zipra history, Hadebe was the first one to fire a gun on Rhodesian soil to mark the beginning of the armed struggle against white minority rule in 1964.
Mafela Trust national co-ordinator Zephaniah Nkomo told Southern Eye yesterday that the birthday celebrations would be held in Mwaza, seven kilometres west of Gwanda town.
“Tentatively, we are planning to start the celebrations in the morning and expect over 200 guests,” he said.
“However, we want to emphasise that this event is not going to be a political platform for people to make political speeches. We are not going to allow anyone to capture this event for whatever political ends. It’s a birthday.”
Mafela Trust is involved in peace-building, research, and documentation of history.
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The group has been identified as curator and custodian for Zapu as a liberation movement as well as its military wing Zipra war archives.
Nkomo said Mafela Trust would be launching a book on Hadebe’s life after the birthday celebrations.
“The book is undergoing its final editing. We are yet to have a date for the launch,” he said. “The book is titled First Gun Shots in Inland Rhodesia.”
Nkomo said Hadebe had been honoured by local and foreign institutions for the role he played in the liberations struggle, including in South Africa and Algeria.
Mafela Trust would also present a special accolade to Hadebe, Nkomo said, indicating support from well-wishers would be welcome.
In October last year, Hadebe told NewsDay that top Zanu PF politicians, the media and State institutions involved in the collection of liberation war data had connived to shun all ex-Zapu and Zipra cadres.
“Sometime, a certain minister, whose name I will not mention, came to me and told me that they were learning about me,” he said then.
“We are being silenced out of history, even as there are efforts to create the impression that they are learning about us. No one can speak better than us about our experiences.”
Politicians from the ruling party, Zanu PF, claim the first gunshots were fired at Chinhoyi in 1966.
