MAKONDE MP Kindness Paradza (Zanu PF) has claimed that scores of children fathered by former Zipra fighters operating in the Makonde area at the height of the liberation struggle were battling to acquire national identify documents (IDs) as their fathers were unknown.
CHIEF REPORTER
Zipra was the armed wing of PF Zapu which, together with Zanu PF’s Zanla, waged a protracted guerilla war against the country’s colonial rulers.
Paradza said the Zipra forces left Makonde after integration and “went back to their home areas; some to Matabeleland North, some to Matabeleland South and others to the Midlands,” but the children remained behind.
Contributing to a motion on the welfare of war veterans in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Paradza said the children were suffering due to what he termed “collateral damage”.
According to the latest issue of Hansard, the parliamentary verbatim publication, Paradza produced a letter written by one Locardia Kutamirepi Chigaro who said she failed to go to school after giving birth to a Zipra fighter’s child.
“I thought I should say something about this motion. When Honourable (Ronald) Muderedzwa (Buhera Central, Zanu PF) moved this motion possibly last week, I went to my constituency in Makonde and one lady (Locardia Kutamirepi Chigaro) who participated in the war of liberation as a chimbwido (lookout and cook for freedom fighters) gave me a letter and said I should read this in Parliament,” Paradza said.
“What this means, Madam Speaker, is that there is this aspect of collateral damage which happened during the war and we seem to forget that there were children who were born and who, up to now, are not aware who their fathers are.
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“I can give you an example of Mashonaland West or precisely Makonde. This is where Zipra forces were operating from during the war. At Romeo Assembly Point, which is in the middle of Makonde at Magurekure Primary School, this was where the second largest concentration of Zipra forces was during ceasefire. The first one was at Gwayi and this was second from Gwayi Assembly Point.
“We have a number of such women in Makonde today, who had these children who, up to today, do not know their fathers. It is difficult for them to get IDs.”
