Robert Mugabe Speech National Heroes Day, 8th August 2005

Today we gather here yet again to commemorate an important national occasion, the Heroes Day. This is a day we dedicate to those gallant men and women who gave up their lives so we could all be free. This day was hallowed yesterday; is being hallowed today; will be hallowed tomorrow, and always in the future, as an abiding signpost of how Zimbabwe came to be. As we congregate here, we remain aware that many more of our heroes lie away from this central National Shrine; at numerous shrines in all our provinces and districts; in mass graves outside our borders, in Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, Tanzania and other countries. They lie undetected, unmarked, unburied on the very ground they fell in battle. Through an occasion like this, we reassure them that they remain dear and solid in our memories. Yes, we use this day and occasion to remember thousands of victims of settler atrocities throughout the ninety long years of occupation, starting of course with the heroes and heroines of our First Chimurenga who, by their heroic acts of illustrative resistance, sowed the seed that inspired and fortified the Second Chimurenga. In the same spirit, we remember heroic victims of later forms of resistance after the First Chimurenga, right up to the sixties when many perished on the streets, in jails and detentions, and in some cases, in circumstances we still cannot comprehend or fathom to this day. The best way of honouring all these heroes is that of renewing our collective oath to this Nation, binding ourselves anew to its total defence and to upholding the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of our liberated country, the Republic of Zimbabwe, for all time. Each and every one of our heroes knew that he or she was part of a national collectivity, which required a marriage of efforts in the struggle, the people's struggle if we were to succeed. Each and every one of our heroes thus knew that the principal and most formidable weapon of our struggle was unity: purposeful unity of the oppressed masses bound in their struggle and bounded by the spirit of sacrifice and by their sacred blood already spilt. Unity was the formula for survival; unity was the formula for power, yes, unity was the principal strategy for winning the brutal war against the settler occupier. It was ands remains the cornerstone for the preservation of our Nation for all time. So as we fought and won in unity, we gather and celebrate our victory in unity. Our heroes knew that the struggle for Independence was a political expression of a continuing struggle which one day would translate into other forms our struggle, always driven by people-oriented goals. Freedom and Independence having been won, the ultimate goal was now the creation of a socio-economic environment in which the people would in common reap maximum benefits. These would, in the main derive from the land, and land as their principal natural resource. That is why the Third Chimurenga became necessary. Without doubt, our heroes are happy that a crucial part of this new phase of our struggle has been completed. The land has been freed and today all our heroes lie on the soil that is emancipated. Their spirits are unbound, free to roam the land they left shackled, thanks again to the Third Chimurenga. But they want you and me to protect and use that unshackled land in feeding and prospering our Nation. They want the same land that was shackled yesterday to flower and feed our children. They want it worked productively so it can do much more than just to feed the Nation. There is indeed the urgent need to move away from the current economic structure, which still sees us relying on substantial imports for our basic requirements, because we fail to produce what we need. Today, I repeat the wartime slogan, which motivated us to share burdens of the struggle: Iwe neni tine basa! The land we acquired from the white settlers and committed to your care brought with it enormous responsibilities. Government continues to extend generous support to agriculture, to the new farmers; and our expectation is that such assistance should translate into better and expanded agriculture that secures the Nation's food needs and drives its economy. We have temporarily stopped all land allocations to allow ourselves time to review the situation as it has evolved until now. We want to be satisfied that all beneficiaries thus far are working the land meaningfully. We want to be satisfied that allocations match capacities of beneficiaries, by both size and means. Ownership imposes responsibilities, more so for a finite resource such as land. Let it be appreciated that until and unless we are able to feed ourselves as a Nation, we remain vulnerable to outside influence and subversion. In asking all those on the land to produce, we are asking them to secure our sovereignty, which continues to be challenged by the same forces we fought against yesterday. In May, we embarked on a broad clean-up campaign meant to put an end to unplanned settlements and activities. Dubbed "Operation Murambatsvina", the exercise created some difficulties for some individuals and families accommodated in informal settlements that lay outside official plans and arrangements. We could not have allowed such settlements to go on any longer, together with the illegal activities, which thrived on such environments. We acted decisively, but always mindful that the chief end was to accommodate displaced persons by providing them with better shelter. This is why "Operation Murambatsvina" soon gave way to "Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle" through which an expanded national housing delivery programme is crystallizing around the preceding clean-up operation. Let it not be forgetting that "Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle" is now possible because the land has been freed. We can now cut available land into residential stands that meet the accommodation needs of our urban people, the same way our rural landless have had their land needs met. It is the same land reform programmes only expressing itself variously to meet define needs and circumstances. We committed to improving the lot of our citizens in urban areas. Indeed, we have been since 1980, when we got our Independence and when Government embarked on a massive housing programme which unfortunately lost impetus somewhere along the way. The time to refocus is now, and providing homes is a prime responsibility of Government. Let those loud hypocrites who speak in defence of slums that brutalise our people tell us why they have done for our people in the area of housing ever since. Let those long-distance philanthropists who want to romanticize shacks as settings and habitants for human rights tell us why they do not allow them in their own lands. Surely their own people need and deserve human rights, which we are told are the same everywhere. Above all, let them tell us why they have slapped the same people they say they love and cherish so deeply with illegal sanctions. We shall not be detracted from building shelter for our people and the ongoing programmes on housing should be accelerated. We thank countries of goodwill, most notably, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Algeria, Tanzania and Benin, for standing by us in the Security Council and fending off the threats from the West. Blair and his European and American supporters had hoped to use the exaggerated effects of a well-meant exercise to drag us into the United Nations Security Council so as to legitimize his imperial designs against our Nation. The plan failed dismally and today the whole world, including the United Nations, knows the insincerity of the Blair government when it comes to Zimbabwe. I have invited the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to visit our country so he can have an appreciation of what we are trying to do for our people in the sphere of Housing and Informal Business. It is important that the United Nations remains a genuine instrument of world peace and interaction, not a platform from which powerful nations assault the sovereignty of smaller nations. That visit, if taken up, will enable the Security General to understand our situation better, including what we are trying to do develop our people and country against artificial odds and formidable impediments spitefully placed in our way by nations, which are supposed to be civilized. A few years back, we changed course and declared a "Look East" policy. It is a policy rooted in our struggle. Let it not be forgotten that with the exception of the former Soviet Union, the material assistance that helped liberate this country largely came from China. It was the so-called "red" world and not the pretentious "free world" that helped us win our freedom and regain our liberties. I am happy to announce that our "look East" policy is beginning to assume concrete form and to yield quantifiable economic results for our Nation. My recent State Visit to China was most beneficial, and is set to transform our economy in a fundamental way. I am aware that there are shrill calls from many quarters, including those, which we expect to know better, for the so-called talks with the MDC. Some of these calls have been motivated by the MDC leadership which thinks it can use international pressure to compel us to talk to talk to it. Today, we tell all those calling for such ill-conceived talks to please stop misdirecting their efforts. They know who must be spoken to. In case they do not, we tell here at Heroes' Acre that the man who needs to be spoken to in order to see reason resides at No. 10 Downing Street. Those in Harvest House, Harare, are no more than his stooges and puppets. He needs to be told Zimbabwe became a free and sovereign country in 1980, which put an end to British settler colonial rule. If the MDC are genuine and sincere, let them call for an end to these odious sanctions they have invited to afflict this country. They mistakenly and quite stupidly hoped the resultant difficulties brought upon our people would create a situation in which they could install themselves in power over people who have demonstrably rejected them in general elections. When will they learn that power to rule Zimbabwe comes from the people of Zimbabwe? The people of this country will sternly resist the promise by their masters of "regime change". These Heroes and others who lie elsewhere sacrificed their lives to free our country and its people from British imperialism. He who courts that imperialism and goes to bed with it is worse than a traitor. Finally, may I appeal to all our people for true loyalty to our country Zimbabwe and to the vision and calling of these men and women of honour who lie here. They challenge all of us to continue to serve this country in the true spirit of patriotism.