Harare

Human remains and weapons linked to liberation struggle found in Chiredzi mine

By Staff Reporter
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1091
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September 24, 2025

In a discovery that reopens painful memories of the liberation struggle, human remains believed to be of war heroes, alongside rifles and ammunition, have been unearthed in an abandoned mine shaft at Dreamgate Mine in Hippo Valley.

It is exactly 45 years after Zimbabwe attained independence, but there is still a huge number of freedom fighters whose remains are yet to be located for decent burials.

The latest chapter is the discovery of human remains in an abandoned mine shaft at Dreamgate Mine in Chiredzi’s Hippo Valley area.

“

This mine shaft is 20 to 30 meters deep. At the bottom part of this mineshaft is where we started discovering human bones, skulls, and clothes, then we alerted the police immediately,” the Director of Dreamgate Mine, Enock Shonhiwa narrated.

The Masvingo Provincial leadership was at the site this Monday with traditional leaders and war veterans, giving credence to fears that the remains could be of liberation war fighters.

“

This mineshaft looks like an abandoned one from many years ago. This incident reminds us of how heartless the Rhodesian forces were because of the remains of people that were possibly thrown in the shaft because the guns which were discovered are the same type of guns we used to use during the liberation struggle, hence we say these remains might belong to the liberation struggle fighters,” a war veteran said.

“What we saw here is sad. To think that these people’s remains have been in this shaft for 45 years or more. We want to appeal for resources from the government as war veterans, so that we will be able to move around and engage the communities and traditional leadership in this area, so that we can establish more about this incident,” another added.
“The fallen heroes and heroines of this land should be properly buried. That is the least we can do to honour the sacrifice they made for our country, hence after everything has been done here, these people whose remains were discovered must be buried in a decent manner,” Chief Tshovani noted.

National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe Southern Region Director, Mr Lovemore Mandima confirmed the development and the way forward.

“As a way forward, we need to take a very systematic approach towards confirming the nature of the site. We need to do a bit of mapping, oral interviews with the communities around, dating back to the times of the liberation struggle, such that we can reconnect that information and probably come up with a conclusion to say under what circumstances did this event happen.”

This comes at a time when the government is spearheading a programme to honour fallen heroes and heroines across the region through immortalising the shrines.

“We came here to map forward a practical implementation plan regarding this discovery. The police, the army, and the NMMZ are also involved in the process, and we aim to ensure that they get decent burials. This will be in line with the programme being undertaken by the government, which sees to it that the fallen heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle are honoured,” Masvingo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Ezra Chadzamira noted.

Apart from the human remains discovered in the mine shaft, there were 200 live rounds of ammunition for light machine guns, four AK-47 rifles, 2 rifle grenades, and an assortment of grenades.

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