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    Government committed to addressing challenges facing citizens

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    Harare, (New Ziana) –The government is fully aware of the challenges that citizens are facing and is working towards addressing them, Acting President General (Retired) Constantino Chiwenga has said.

    He said this on Monday while addressing thousands of mourners gathered at the national shrine to witness the burial of former deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Justin Mupamhanga.

    Mupamhanga died last Wednesday at Arundel Clinic in the capital after succumbing to diabetes.

    He was 71. Acting President Chiwenga said issues affecting citizens, which include unreliable public transport, an unregulated informal market, health and infrastructure challenges are already being addressed.

    “Irrespective of all these, we must remain united and focused. Let us remain vigilant and ready to defend our country, its resources and ideals, including its values and sum-culture.

    “We must not be a generation which betrays or fails our revolution and its ideals purchased through such painful sacrifice,” he said.

    He said vision 2030 encompasses every citizen of Zimbabwe and not those that get wealth through illicit means.

    “Our Vision 2030 is for all of us, kwete dzamunoti mbinga (not those whom you call rich hustlers)! Kuhondo taidziti zvigananda (during the war we called them zvigananda): those who grow big tummies through ill-gotten wealth and questionable morals!

    “A Nation is as developed as its weakest man and woman, indeed, as its remotest part,” he said.

    To realise an upper middle-income economy as envisioned by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Chiwenga said, the nation needs to summon collective energies towards one common goal. He added that rural industrialization is one key lesson which should be learnt from successful countries and growing economies.

    “We must produce more, we must beneficiate all our resources, we must industrialize our economy towards value addition and beneficiation. “Above all, we must turn our rural areas into centres of industrial activity, based on each community’s resource endowments.

    “We must lift our people out of degrading and dehumanizing poverty, indeed change the trajectory of flow of goods and services back to the countryside where we all began,” he said.

    Turning to the late hero, Chiwenga said Mupamhanga was a great patriot, demonstrated by his tireless dedication and selfless service as he understood the sacrifices required for progress. He said Mupamhanga continuously sought to uplift the people, echoing the wartime mantra that called for unity and a collective vision for the country’s future.

    Acting President Chiwenga said motivated by a profound sense of national duty, Mupamhanga abandoned his studies at the University of Rhodesia in 1975 to join the liberation struggle, becoming part of “The 8,” a group of educated and courageous individuals who sacrificed their futures for the country’s independence.

    “May I on behalf of The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency Cde Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, our grieving nation, the ruling party ZANU PF, the Government, my family, and on my own behalf, extend my deepest condolences to Amai Idah Mupamhanga, the widow of Cde Mupamhanga and a fellow war veteran, as well as to their children.

    “We mourn the loss of another hero, just days after saying goodbye to his three comrades, whose graves still bear the fresh marks of our grief, grief that resonates deeply within our nation.

    As we face this heartbreaking reality, we remember that a generation of exceptional men and women, pivotal in our liberation struggle through selfless sacrifice, is leaving us,” he said.

    He added that the late hero leaves behind a legacy of integrity, hard work, and an unyielding resolve to protect the nation’s values and resources.

    Mupamhanga was born in Goneso Village under Chief Ruzane in the Hwedza district of Mashonaland East province on 1 March, 1953.

    He was a renowned farmer, which is what earned him the piece of land in another district of the then Rhodesia.

    He was educated at Nyakasikana Primary School and later at St Augustine Anglican Secondary School in Manicaland, where he excelled academically.

    Driven by the injustices of the colonial regime, he joined a wave of determined youth who protested against oppression, leading to his ultimate expulsion from school and relocation to Harare, where he completed his education.

    Mupamhanga’s extraordinary talents made him part of the training team at the Wampua Political College at Chimoio Camp.

    His mastery in Portuguese language often saw him serving as a translator for pivotal meetings involving the late President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and the late Mozambican President Samora Machel.

    Post-independence in 1980, the party authorized him to remain in Mozambique to complete his degree in Economics at Eduardo Mondlane University and he returned in 1983 to serve in various strategic roles, significantly shaping the county’s economic landscape.

    On his return, Mupamhanga joined the President’s Department under the Economics Division.

    He was then posted to a diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom, from 1994 as a Minister Counsellor.

    He took advantage of the posting and enrolled for a Masters in Business Administration at Middlesex University and his dissertation looked at strategies to improve Foreign Direct Investment to Zimbabwe.

    Later, he was recalled to Head Office where he was tasked to transform the Economics Division into a fully-fledged Branch.

    The late former President Mugabe would later appoint Mupamhanga to the sensitive post of permanent secretary for Energy and Power Development in December 2002.

    His tenure as permanent secretary was marked by addressing several challenges, from eliminating fuel shortages to restructuring vital energy and power institutions such as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and the introduction of the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA).

    In times of the El Nino induced droughts that have from time to time devastated the Southern African region, the late Mupamhanga was part of a Taskforce that included the late Minister of Agriculture and then Airforce Commander, Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri, late Lieutenant General Amoth Chin’ombe then Chief of Staff in the Defence Forces, and Ngonidzashe Masoka, the then secretary for Agriculture.

    In 2012, Mupamhanga was appointed Deputy Chief Secretary responsible for Monitoring and Evaluation in the Office of the President and Cabinet, before retiring in 2019 after 36 years of dedicated service to the government.

    In retirement, his commitment to serve continued as he took on influential roles in Kuvimba Mining House and as an advisor to the late Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, the late Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Shiri, and also served on the Board of the Agricultural Finance Corporation.

    New Ziana

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