Economic Liberation Deserves a Place Alongside Political Freedom at Heroes’ Acre

By Newton M. Mambande

HARARE – EVERY 11th of August, we gather at the National Heroes Acre in Harare. The guns fire. The bugles sound. We lay wreaths for men and women who took up arms to liberate this country. And rightly so. Political freedom without memory is a nation without a soul. A people that forgets its past is condemned to repeat its future.

But as the dust settles and we return to our offices, factories, farms, and tuckshops, I am left with one question that has haunted our national conversation for 25 years: Who’s a hero?

The late Oliver Mtukudzi asked it first, in that haunting 1992 song:
“Hero here, hero there… asi hero chaiye ndiani? Who’s a hero?”

Forty-six years after independence, forty-four years after our first Heroes Day, and a quarter-century after the land reforms, our definition of heroism has not grown. It is still trapped in 1980.

We honour the gun. We forget the chequebook. We honour the trench. We forget the boardroom. We honour the struggle for political liberation. We ignore the struggle for economic liberation.

This column argues that National Heroes Day, as currently constituted, has a critical shortcoming: it fails to honour living heroes and heroines in business, finance, manufacturing, and economic development. And in doing so, we risk teaching the next generation that freedom stops at the ballot box, not at the bank account. That nation-building ends with a flag, not with a factory.

We must correct this. Not to diminish the sacrifices of 1972-1979, but to complete the story. Because political liberation gave us the right to be free. Economic heroes gave us the means to stay free.

I. THE MISSING CHAPTER: ECONOMIC LIBERATION

Political independence gave us self-determination. The Lancaster Constitution gave us rights. But rights without resources are promises without delivery.

Real freedom is measured in jobs; in factories that hum at 6 a.m.; in USD in your EcoCash wallet; in a child who can afford school fees because her father has a contract; in a clinic that has drugs because the Treasury collected VAT.

That is where our economic heroes come in. They did not carry rifles. They carried risk. They carried payrolls. They carried the economy on their backs during hyperinflation, during sanctions, during currency changes, during COVID-19.

Consider the record. Not as a political endorsement, but as a record of economic impact.

The Telecoms and Technology Liberators

Strive Masiyiwa: When the state said telecoms was a monopoly, he fought it to the Supreme Court and secured a landmark judgment in 1997. That judgment was not just about a licence. It was about competition, consumer choice, and the right to innovate. Econet Wireless today employs 4,000 people directly, and over 200,000 indirectly through agents, vendors, and the EcoCash ecosystem. It has paid billions in taxes and licence fees. During the 2008 crisis, Econet kept remittances flowing. During COVID-19, it kept schools online through data zero-rating. It exported a Zimbabwean model to Burundi, Lesotho, and Botswana. That is infrastructure of freedom.

The Financial Services Pioneers

Tawanda Nyambirai: Founder of TN Holdings Limited. In the 1990s he built TN Bank, TN Insurance, and TN Asset Management, creating a financial services group from scratch. At its peak, TN was in every town and had over 20,000 shareholders. It proved that Zimbabweans could own, run, and scale banks without foreign parentage. Black capital could intermediate savings.

Peter Pamire: Director of Pamire Textiles and an early indigenous industrialist. In an era when textiles were dominated by foreign firms, he invested in manufacturing, jobs, and export. He showed that value-addition was possible even with limited capital.

The Media and Democracy Enablers

Trevor Ncube: His career is a masterclass in independent media as an economic institution. From 1989 to 1995 he was Managing Editor of The Financial Gazette under Modus Publications. He turned it into the paper of record for business. He later took a shareholding in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian and built Alpha Media Holdings in Zimbabwe: The Standard, NewsDay, and the Zimbabwe Independent. Democracy without a free press is a market without price signals. Investors need information. AMH provided it, created jobs, and paid taxes, while defending editorial independence.

Supa Mandiwanzira: Media entrepreneur and publisher. From broadcasting to print, he invested in platforms that carried Zimbabwean voices. In a small market, sustaining media is an act of faith in democracy and in advertising economics.

The Industrialists and Builders

Philip Chiyangwa: Love him or hate him, he built. From Native Investments to large-scale property development, he showed that Black capital could put cranes on the Harare skyline in a dollarised economy when others were merely importing. He created construction jobs and changed the city’s skyline.

James Makamba: Early pioneer in telecoms, media, and hospitality. He showed risk appetite when risk was punished by policy uncertainty. He invested in hotels and broadcast when FDI was zero.

Billy Rautenbach: Built and turned around heavy industry, maintaining smelters and transport when many were mothballing. His record is a matter of public record and debate. But he kept smelters running and trucks moving when others were exiting. Industrial capacity is hard to build and easy to lose.

Ian Saunders: Widely recognised as one of Zimbabwe’s leading gold mining magnates. He took risk in a sector that is capital-intensive and volatile. Mining remains our largest forex earner. Entrepreneurs like Saunders who reinvest in exploration and extraction are keeping that engine running.

Moses Chingwenya: Founder of Croco Motors. He built a motor dealership and service group from nothing into a national brand. In an economy dependent on transport, he kept fleets on the road and trained technicians.

Ray Kaukonde: Investor in agriculture, property, and hospitality. He showed that post-2000 investment could still happen in rural areas.

Timothy Chiganze: Business leader in insurance and financial services.

Philip Mataranyika: Co-founder of Nyaradzo Group. He built Nyaradzo from a funeral parlour into a financial services group with life assurance, reinsurance, and investments. Nyaradzo employs thousands and manages billions in policyholder funds. It is indigenous capital managing long-term savings.

The Energy and Security Architects

Kudakwashe R. Tagwirei: Founder of Sakunda Energy. In a fuel-starved decade, Sakunda built depots, secured supply lines, and invested in 40+ service stations. It kept generators, farms, and mines running. Energy is the oxygen of GDP. Without it, there is no production.

Divine Ndhlukula: Founder and CEO of Securico. She took security from a cottage industry to a professional, 8,000-employee sector. In an economy with high risk, she created trust as a product. She is also a case study in women leading in a male-dominated sector, with export of services to the region.

The Conglomerate Builder

Shingirai Stanley Mutasa: Founder of Masawara Investments PLC. He assembled a portfolio with controlling stakes in TA Holdings companies: Sable Chemicals, Joina City, Zimnat Insurance, Botswana Life, Cresta International Hotels, Utande Investments. This is patient capital. He kept strategic assets in Zimbabwean hands and invested across chemicals, property, insurance, hospitality, and ICT.

The Manufacturers

Tinashe Mutarisi: Founder of Nash Paints. He built a manufacturing brand that competes with multinationals on shelf. He invested in plant, distribution, and branding. “Proudly Zimbabwean” was not a slogan. It was paint on a wall.

The Women Who Built

Our honours system must also recognise that economic liberation was not only male.

Tsitsi Mutasa: A leading woman in financial services and insurance. She has championed women’s participation in capital markets.

Zodwa Mkandla: Entrepreneur in property, hospitality, and business development. She has mentored hundreds of women SMEs.

Kubi Indi: Media and communications entrepreneur. She built brands and platforms for women’s voices in business.

These women proved that the boardroom is also a site of struggle and liberation.

II. BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT, INDIGENISATION, AND THE FIGHT AGAINST CAPITAL FLIGHT

All the names above share one thing: they are products of, and contributors to, Black Economic Empowerment and Indigenisation.

For 90 years, Zimbabwe’s commanding heights were owned externally. Profits were externalised. Decisions were made in London and Johannesburg.

BEE and Indigenisation, for all their policy flaws, had one clear economic effect: they reduced externalisation of profits and capital flight. When a Zimbabwean owns the bank, the insurance company, the paint factory, the dividends are reinvested here. The taxes are paid here. The procurement is done here.

Econet listed on the ZSE. TN had 20,000 local shareholders. Nyaradzo’s policyholders are Zimbabwean pensioners. Masawara kept Sable Chemicals and Cresta in regional hands.

This is not about politics. It is about arithmetic. A dollar retained and reinvested locally has a multiplier of 2.4. A dollar externalised has a multiplier of zero.

We must applaud this, even as we critique implementation. Because the alternative was, and is, deindustrialisation.

III. THE FAILURE OF THE CURRENT HONOURS SYSTEM

Our current system, governed by the National Honours Act, has three structural problems.

1. It is retrospective, not prospective.
   We only honour people after they are dead. By then, their companies are often gone, their lessons are lost, and their children have emigrated. We cannot interview them. We cannot ask: “How did you build TN in 1995 with 40% interest rates?” Living heroes can mentor. Dead heroes can only be quoted.
2. It is narrow.
   The criteria focus on liberation war, chimurenga, and public service. There is no category for “Economic Liberation”. Yet the Constitution gave us political freedom. It did not give us factories. Those had to be built by individuals taking personal risk.
3. It risks being perceived as partisan.
   This is the most damaging part. Because honours are seen through a political lens, we risk excluding people who have created jobs but are not aligned. That sends a message: enterprise is only patriotic if it is partisan. That is false, and dangerous.

Heroism must be non-partisan and apolitical. A job created by an Econet agent in Binga feeds a child regardless of how she voted. Tax paid by Nash Paints builds a school regardless of the owner’s politics.

IV. DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM AND WEALTH CREATION

The economic heroes above all operated in the space that democracy creates.

Strive Masiyiwa took the government to the Supreme Court in 1997 and secured a landmark judgment. That was judicial independence in action.
Trevor Ncube published stories that held power to account. That was press freedom in action.
Divine Ndhlukula bid for and won government security tenders on merit. That was procurement reform in action.
Philip Mataranyika built Nyaradzo under insurance law and regulation.

Wealth creation does not happen in a vacuum. It happens where contracts are enforced, where you can repatriate profits, where you can speak without fear, and where you can fail and try again.

The companies they built are case studies, not just in profit, but in national resilience:

· Econet Wireless: US$1.2 billion market cap at its peak. Listed on ZSE. Built the digital rails for mobile money.
· TN Holdings: At one point 20,000 shareholders. Black-owned, black-managed, black-capitalised.
· Alpha Media Holdings: Proved independent media could be commercially viable.
· Securico: 8,000 jobs. Professionalised an entire sector.
· Nyaradzo Group: Manages long-term savings for 1.5 million Zimbabweans.
· Sakunda Energy: Built infrastructure that ended fuel queues.
· Masawara/TA Holdings: Kept strategic assets like Sable Chemicals and Cresta operating.
· Nash Paints: Manufacturing, with 300+ employees and export to the region.

These are not just companies. They are monuments. Bigger than statues. They pay salaries every month.

V. THE PROPOSAL: THE ECONOMIC HEROES HONOURS ACT

Zimbabwe must amend the National Honours Act to create a new category: “Heroes and Heroines of Economic Liberation”. And it must be explicitly non-partisan.

Here is how it would work:

1. New Awards

· Order of the Economic Liberator – Gold: For those who created 5,000+ jobs or US$500m in cumulative investment
· Order of the Industrialist – Silver: For manufacturing, agro-processing, and mining pioneers
· Order of the Innovator – Bronze: For fintech, tech, and new-economy builders
· Order of the Social Entrepreneur: For those who combined profit with community impact

A gender-balanced selection committee, drawn from ZNCC, CZI, academia, and labour, would make nominations. No politicians on the panel.

2. Living Honours

Confer awards on living recipients. Let us celebrate them while they can mentor. Let Masiyiwa address students at NUST. Let Ndhlukula teach at women’s entrepreneurship forums. Let Nyambirai lecture at business schools.

3. Annual Economic Heroes Day

Hold it on the first Friday of October, just before budget season. Not a public holiday, but a national business forum where awardees present their “State of Enterprise” address.

4. National Economic Heroes Park

Not to replace Heroes Acre, but to complement it. A walkway with plaques: “TN Holdings – 1994-2010 – Banking for the People”. “Econet – 1998 – Connecting Zimbabwe”. “Securico – 2001 – Securing Jobs”.

5. School Curriculum

Teach case studies. Not just “who fired the first shot” but “who wired the first cell tower”, “who built the first indigenous bank”, “who kept the lights on”.

VI. WHY WE MUST CAPITALISE NOW

Three reasons, all economic.

1. Investment Signal

When a country honours entrepreneurs, capital comes. Investors ask: “Will my risk be recognised?” If the answer is yes, FDI increases. If the answer is no, capital flees. Honours are cheaper than tax incentives.

2. Narrative Change

Right now our national story is 1980-2026: struggle, sanctions, survival. We need a new chapter: 2026-2050: build, invest, export. Honouring business heroes writes that chapter.

3. Retention of Talent

Our best minds are leaving because they think there is no recognition at home. If we gave Peter Pamire a state honour in 2000, would TN have collapsed? If we gave Masiyiwa a national award in 2005, would he have moved his HQ? Recognition is cheaper than a bailout.

VII. THE OBJECTIONS – AND THE ANSWERS

“But some of them are controversial.”
So were some liberation fighters. Heroism is not about being liked. It is about impact. Let history judge, not Twitter.

“Business is about profit, not patriotism.”
Tell that to the 8,000 Securico guards feeding families. Tell that to the Econet agent in Binga who earns US$300 a month. Tell that to the Nash Paints worker in Msasa. Profit and patriotism are not opposites.

“This will politicise business.”
Business is already political. Taxes, licences, forex. Let us make the politics explicit, rules-based, and non-partisan.

“Why now? Why living people?”
Because we need role models now. Because unemployment is 35%. Because our youth need to see that you can be honoured for building, not just for fighting.

VIII. CONCLUSION: EXPANDING THE DEFINITION

On Heroes Day 2026, let us still honour the fallen. Let us still remember the trenches. That debt can never be repaid.

But let us also walk down Samora Machel Avenue and see the Econet building. Let us drive past Willowvale and see the Securico depot. Let us drive past Msasa and see Nash Paints. Let us switch on NewsDay and remember that a free press is also a national asset.

Let us answer Mtukudzi’s question.

“Who’s a hero?”

A hero is the man who employs 50 people when banks won’t lend.
A hero is the woman who exports fruit when forex is scarce.
A hero is the founder who pays tax on time, even in January.
A hero is the entrepreneur who keeps a factory open during a currency change.

Political liberation gave us the right to be free.
Economic heroes gave us the means to stay free.

Until our honours system reflects both, we are only telling half the story of Zimbabwe.

And a nation that only remembers half its heroes will only achieve half its potential.

The time to amend the National Honours Act is now. Not after the next election. Not after the next crisis. Now. Because the builders are still here. And they still have more to build.

Newton M. Mambande is an entrepreneur and researcher with published scientific research scholarship in journals. He is reachable at newtonmunod@gmail.com or +263773411103.