WAR VETERANS: ‘Welcome to active politics Amai’

26 Oct, 2014 - 06:10 0 Views
WAR VETERANS: ‘Welcome to active politics Amai’ Dr Mugabe greets Cde Joseph Chinotimba before addressing war veterans in Mazowe last week

The Sunday Mail

Dr Mugabe greets Cde Joseph Chinotimba before addressing war veterans in  Mazowe last week

Dr Mugabe greets Cde Joseph Chinotimba before addressing war veterans in Mazowe last week

On Thursday, First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe met war veterans at her children’s home in Mazowe. Dr Mugabe, as she also did during her countrywide “Meet the People” rallies, spoke strongly against factionalism and attempts to unseat President Robert Mugabe from his position as the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF and as Head of State and Government.

Below we publish the full statement that the war veterans issued in support of President Mugabe as well as Amai Mugabe’s bold stance.

Endorsement of the Ascendancy of the First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe to the position of Zanu-PF Secretary for the Women’s League by the Veterans of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation

Whereas we, as the veterans of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation made up of Zanla and Zipra, are the true vanguard of the Zimbabwean Revolution;

Cognisant of the fact that the youth within the Zanu-PF Party should draw inspiration from the war veterans;

Aware that the war veterans should have taken an early and leading stance in support of the First Lady’s entry into mainstream politics;

Noting, as the Vanguard of the Zimbabwean Revolution, the war veterans should have spoken early and loudly against the ills of corruption, factionalism, vote-buying, machinations to unlawfully depose His Excellency, the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, from power and abuse of Party positions and authority to manipulate the conduct and results of Party Youth League elections; and,

Disturbed by the inertia, paralysis and utter dysfunctionality among the current youthful leadership of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association in addressing these critical issues;

Now, therefore, we, the vanguard elders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association, gathered here, after wide-ranging consultations with liberation war veterans in the 10 provinces of the Republic of Zimbabwe, would like to categorically and unequivocally state the following:

a) We fully endorse the ascendancy of the First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe to the position of Zanu-PF Secretary for Women’s Affairs and to the leadership of the Zanu-PF Women’s League;

b) We appreciate and fully support what the First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe has done in speaking candidly and fearlessly against corruption, factionalism, vote-buying, attempts to push out His Excellency, the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, from his position as the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF and as Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces;

c) We strongly condemn the failure by the current national leadership of the association to endorse the ascendancy of the First Lady to the leadership of the Zanu-PF Women’s League, but instead choosing a deafening silence and wait-and-see approach, and we are left wondering whether this silence is an indication that the leadership of the association has finally been silenced by our enemies as they promised that they will buy the association’s silence with money and other benefits;

d) We refuse to be separated from the First Family and continue to be in support of His Excellency, the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and endorse him as the sole candidate for the position of President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF at the forthcoming elective Congress;

e) We feel that we cannot go to Congress with the current leadership of war veterans and would like a mature, disciplined and principled leadership to be put in place and to serve in caretaker capacity and facilitate the election of a new executive;

f) We thank a true hero of the War of Liberation, Comrade Oppah Chamu Zvipange Muchinguri, for her magnanimity in voluntarily vacating her position as the Zanu-PF Secretary for Women’s Affairs in order to make way for the ascendency of the First Lady to that position;

g) We promise to mobilise and support Comrade Oppah should she want to contest in any other position within the Party;

h) We condemn the pretenders who are using false stories of heroism in the liberation war to get into senior positions, when the real heroes of our War of Liberation are being pushed away from key positions within the Party and Government; and,

i) We condemn those war veterans, who when they get into positions of authority in the Party and Government, surround themselves with people without any history of the War of Liberation who hero-worship them and divert them from the true path of the revolution.

Additionally, we would like to furnish the First Lady with the following information:

a) We, the war veterans, are composed of some of the most disadvantaged people in our society today despite the fact that we are the group that liberated this country;

b) Our current allowances are no longer adequate to cover our subsistence and other basic needs including our healthcare and education for our dependants;

c) We were promised medical care which is now direly needed as we grow older, but has not materialised;

d) We are the least educated in society because of the circumstances of the war;

e) Our lack of education and resultant economic condition is becoming an inter-generational curse as we are failing to also send our children to school;

f) We are not receiving enough school fees support for our dependants despite the existence of an Act of Parliament that mandates that we should get the same support;

g) A fund should be set up to support the skills development efforts of war veterans through the payment of tuition fees;

h) We would like the retirement age for war veterans to be set at 70 years to make up for lost time during the liberation struggle;

i) War veterans with the appropriate experience and skills should be employed in key Government positions where they will serve as bureaucratic representatives of the rest of the war veterans’ fraternity;

j) Female war veterans need special attention and assistance because of the effects of their war experiences (e.g. the natural cycles of many female combatants were altered due to harsh training conditions);

k) There is no programme specifically designed to assist war veterans with economic empowerment in spite of the provisions of the Act of Parliament;

l) As war veterans, we are disheartened by the fact that many of our colleagues have not benefited from the land reform programme despite the fact that we spearheaded that programme;

m) Our members who got land hardly benefited from the mechanisation programme and have, therefore, remained incapacitated to take full advantage of the land reform programme;

n) We are against any land audit in the areas occupied by war veterans since we have not been capacitated to fully utilise the land;

o) We want our members to be technically capacitated through short agriculture courses that will allow us to fully benefit from the land reform programme;

p) We would like to be economically empowered in the mining sector without any hindrances;

q) For purposes of preserving the legacy of the War of Liberation and Party ideology, we support the establishment of an Ideological College for the Party; and,

r) We propose the establishment of a Ministry for War Veterans instead of having our issues addressed by only a department in a Ministry.

In conclusion, we, as a group, would like the leadership of a caring person like the First Lady to address the issues we face.

We appeal to you to take these issues to our Patron, His Excellency, the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, the Head of State and Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

Representatives of Provinces

Bulawayo

Harare

Mashonaland Central

Mashonaland East

Manicaland

Matabeleland North

Matabeleland South

Masvingo

Midlands

National Co-ordinators

P. Nyaruwata

V. Matemadanda

G. Matenda

N. Chadamoyo

R. Mutodi

J. Kativhu

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