The Unity Accord that was signed between President Robert Mugabe and the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo to merger Zanu PF and PF Zapu was shaken last week in the confusion surrounding the late Dr Isaac Nyathi’s hero status.

A last minute intervention by President Robert Mugabe on Saturday saved the shaky Unity Accord when he declared that Nyathi be accorded national hero status.

Nyathi was buried at the Lady Stanley Cemetery after Zanu PF Chairman John Nkomo announced during the burial that the politburo had agreed that he should be accorded the hero status.

Word that Dr Nyathi had been conferred with national hero status only arrived when the funeral procession had got to Stanley Hall in Makokoba where a service was just about to commence on Saturday morning.

A hastily convened meeting of Zanu-PF politburo members was called outside the hall just before the service began and the national chairman John Nkomo briefed his colleagues about the latest developments concerning Dr Nyathi’s hero status.

Nkomo blamed the delay on Christmas Holidays but sources said the decision was only made after Mugabe who is on holiday in Asia was warned of the mood in the PF Zapu camp where most people felt that they were receiving a raw deal as members of the pact signed in 1987.

"It was going to be the last straw if Nyathi was not declared a national hero," said a ruling party official who requested anonymity.

During the ruling party’s tension filled special congress last December, Mugabe was forced to leap from his chair to stop controversial war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda from taking the podium after Vice President Joseph Msika and Information and Publicity minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu threatened to walk out.

Addressing mourners Zimbabwe Defence Industries chief executive officer and former ZIPRA commander, Tshinga Dube attacked the criteria used to select national heroes saying most of the people lying at the Heroes Acre did not deserve to be there.

“In our country we now have the highest number of heroes in the world,” Dube said amid applause. “I am not sure whether they deserve to be heroes.

“We strongly feel that the criteria to select national heroes should be urgently reviewed so that similar problems do not happen in future.”

Zanu PF provincial leadership immediately resolved to request that the former MP who was also Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to Nigeria and Kuwait respectively should be declared a national hero after his death on December 28.

But throughout the week Zanu PF secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa said the party was waiting for Acting President Joseph Msika to give directions on the issue. Nkomo blamed the delay in the announcement of Nyathi’s hero status on the holidays saying it was difficult to contact some politburo members, as some of them were now farmers.

Nyathi becomes the third national hero who was a member of PF Zapu to be buried at Lady Stanley after the late ZIPRA commander Lookout Masuku and Masala Sibanda.

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