A REQUEST by Zapu to honour the late liberation icon, Dumiso Dabengwa, by naming one of the streets in Bulawayo after him is gathering dust at council offices.
Zapu in June wrote to the then MDC led council in 2019 requesting that the local authority name Fife Street in the central business district after Dabengwa.
Dabengwa died in Nairobi, Kenya in May 2019 on his way to Zimbabwe from India where he had gone for medical treatment for a liver ailment.
He was 79.
Dabengwa was declared a national hero but was laid to rest at his Emanxeleni rural home in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North province.
The family said he had insisted on having his remains interred alongside that of his relatives in Ntabazinduna as opposed to the National Heroes Acre.
Keep Reading
- Zapu deputy SG quits
- New perspectives: Why Zanu, Zanu PF were successful in the 1970s, 80s and 90s
- Divisions rock Zapu
- Zapu let down supporters, Mzila-Ndlovu
At the time, Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni said the Zapu request was under consideration.
Years on, no street has been named after the late Zapu leader with the council’s current street naming committee yet to make a decision on the matter.
The committee is responsible for reviewing and approving proposals related to the naming of streets.
Ward 2 councillor, Adrian Rendani Moyo, who is part of the committee, told Southern Eye on Sunday that the process is still pending.
“The street naming committee is a sub-committee of the town lands and planning committee,” Moyo said.
“This committee is yet to sit. Once it sits, we shall then look at existing proposals.
“However, let me add that uBaba uDabengwa is an icon whose stature cannot be ignored.”
When questioned why the committee has not deliberated on the matter, Moyo said they were only elected last year.
“I was elected last year, and that committee is yet to sit,” he said.
Critics have said delays in naming a street after Dabengwa raises questions about the council’s commitment to honour the late liberation icon.
A number of Bulawayo streets are named after the country’s liberation heroes such as Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Takawira, Jason Moyo and Josiah Tongogara.
Zapu national spokesperson, Richard Gandari, expressed optimism that Dabengwa will be honoured.
“I will be meeting with the President of Zapu, Cde Sibangilizwe Nkomo, and I’m going to discuss with him about this important issue you have raised,” Gandari said.
“The new mayor of Bulawayo, David Coltart, is a progressive man and sympathises with our party, so efforts to get Dabengwa honoured will most likely succeed under his watch.”
Dabengwa was head of Zapu’s intelligence department of its military wing, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zpra) during the armed struggle.
In 1982, Dabengwa was charged alongside Zipra commander Lookout Masuku, and four others, of treason by the then Robert Mugabe government.
They were acquitted due to lack of evidence in 1983. On release they were re-detained under emergency regulations.
Dabengwa was released four years later.