Sabina Mugabe a liberation heroine?

ZIMBABWE-HARARE-Robert Mugabe’s younger sister and close political ally has died following a long battle with an undisclosed illness.

The ZANU-PF politburo met within a few hours of Sabina Mugabe’s death and declared her a national heroine, conferring upon her the honor of being buried at the National Heroes Acre memorial site in Harare

She becomes the sixth woman to be interred at the national shrine following President Mugabe’s first wife, Sally Mugabe, Joana Mafuyana, Julia Zvobgo, Ruth Chinamano and Sunny Takawira.

Sabina Mugabe served as legislator for Makonde East, Mashonaland West province, beginning in 1985 and represented the Zvimba South constituency, also in Mashonaland West, from 1990 to early 2008, when she retired from active politics for health reasons.

A ZANU-PF statement said she is survived by three children: Leo Mugabe, a former lawmaker, Robert Zhuwawo and his brother Patrick, who is a ZANU-PF member of parliament for Manyame constituency, Mashonaland West.

The 76-year-old former politician, Sabina, was the closest to Mugabe of his three surviving siblings and her death will come as a major blow to the president, who is known to have few close friends.

A former seamstress with little formal education, she was according to those who knew her, proof of how Mugabe looked after his own after he took control of the newly-independent Zimbabwe in 1980.

She became a Zanu-PF MP shortly after he was elected, and is said to have benefitted personally from his land reforms which saw hundreds of white farmers killed, beaten and forced off their land by so-called war veterans.

She was known for driving around the countryside in an official black Mercedes Benz limousine exhorting black squatters to grab white farmland for themselves and was implicated in the seizure of 55-year-old Terry Ford’s farm in Norton, around 25 miles southwest of Harare.

Mr Ford was beaten and shot dead in 2002 – his aged Jack Russell Squeak’s refusal to move from his body added a poignant detail that saw the case make international headlines.

According to Mr Ford’s cousin, Miss Mugabe had told him she wanted him to sign over to her a cottage on his land, adding: “My brother’s the President and if you don’t do it then heads will roll’.”

Miss Mugabe’s sons have also benefited from their uncle’s long reign. Leo Mugabe served as a Zanu-PF MP and chairman of the Zimbabwe Football Association while Patrick Zhuwao was a controversial Zanu PF youth director and MP.

She suffered a stroke in 2007 – the same year that her brother Donato died from heart problems, diabetes and hypertension – and retired from politics in 2008. She was admitted to hospital five days ago but the nature of her illness has not been disclosed.

Heidi Holland, a journalist and author of *Dinner with Mugabe*, said Sabina had been taken in by the Silveira House Catholic seminary when her brother was fighting former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith’s forces from his base in Mozambique.

“She had, compared to him, virtually no education and she worked as a seamstress for them, helping to run classes,” she said.

“She was quite a humble woman and easy to chat to, albeit not very articulate. People who had known her well during that time said that when Mugabe came to power she seemed to become a rather different person.

“She was certainly proof that Mugabe looked after his own when it came to the distribution of assets. They were very very close – he will be distraught about this.”

Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said Sabina Mugabe will be buried at Heroes Acre, a national shrine for loyalist politicians and fallen guerrillas from the liberation war.

Mugabe was expected to address mourners at his sister’s home in Harare yesterday evening.