ONE of the three ministers of national healing, Senator Gibson Sibanda has died.

If surely there was seriousness about national reconciliation in Zimbabwe to the extent that the cash-strapped government would have three ministers in the single portfolio of National Healing and Reconciliation, then Sibanda should have been declared a national hero, judging from his illustrious and revolutionary background. 

  Sibanda was detained by the Rhodesian police from 1976 to 1979 and was arrested numerous times during his tenure as a trade unionist and opposition leader in present-day Zimbabwe. There are many people lying at the National Heroes’ Acre today who do not match Gibson’s achievements. Surely Sibanda did  more than just enough to deserve the accolade.

This was definitely a test case for Zanu PF to show its sincerity in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and its commitment towards national healing and reconciliation. Having been detained from 1976 to 1979, a period many would agree was the peak of the liberation struggle, there is no doubt Zanu PF would have declared him a national hero if he was one of them.

One of the main objectives of the GPA and the inclusive government should be to construct a culture of tolerance among the citizenry, and therefore the major political players in the agreement should have risen above personal and patronage politics and demonstrated their desire to see Zimbabweans hugging and kissing above political differences. Sibanda was a humble and honest man. The man we usually called “DP” during the days of the former united MDC and after the split demonstrated during his life what it meant to be principled.

There is no doubt Sibanda could have chosen to be part and parcel of Zanu PF at the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987 had he so wished, but the “DP” chose to stand his ground and pursue what he believed was the right thing to do. Even when the MDC split in 2005, Morgan Tsvangirai made several gestures to lure him back to his side, but Sibanda remained resolute in defence of what he stood for.
Some of us who worked with him have great respect for our hero, in life, sickness and death.

Sibanda was not declared a national hero because he shunned hypocrisy by choosing to stick to what he believed was right and distanced himself from what he deemed to be wrong at whatever cost.
Sibanda has been taken away from us to soon, but his legacy lives on.

Brighton Chiwola
Pretoria, South Africa

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