ZIMBABWE National Liberation War Veterans’ Association secretary-general Victor Matemadanda yesterday tore into the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), accusing some of its officers of siding with Zanu PF’s Generation 40 (G40) faction.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
The combative Matemadanda made the claims while addressing a Zanu PF Midlands commissariat meeting in Kwekwe.
He labelled some police officers “overzealous” for allegedly attempting to block their commissariat meetings in Gokwe on Wednesday, saying they were “relics of the colonial Ian Smith regime who have found home in the G40”.
“Those who served in the Smith regime (mapuruveya), who are now bosses in the ZRP, are now causing us problems. They are the ones who were behind the attack on war veterans in Harare and have been trying to block party meetings,” he charged.
Matemadanda warned that the G40 faction would be buried on April 7 when war veterans meet their patron President Robert Mugabe to “take the ruling party back to its founding principles”.
He also said the current wave of confusion in the party was being caused by people feigning love for Mugabe, while clandestinely campaigning for former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s Zimbabwe People First opposition project.
The Kwekwe meeting was held in defiance of a directive by Zanu PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere barring all party meetings until restoration of normalcy in the province.
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Kasukuwere acknowledged imposing the ban, saying: “The meeting (yesterday’s), I do not know about it. Thank you for letting me know.”
Matemadanda singled out provincial secretary for administration Tapiwa Matangaidze, youth representative Anastancia Ndlovu and provincial commissar Makhosini Hlongwane for allegedly sowing divisions in the party.
Midlands spokesperson Cornelius Mupereri said yesterday’s meeting was not a rally, but a consultative gathering which was on the calendar of the provincial commissariat.
Yesterday, party spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said he was not sure if the Midlands provincial leadership had defied Kasukuwere or had been given permission to proceed with their meeting.
“From what I read in the papers, the Midlands leadership said it has been having a series of meetings and the Kwekwe meeting was the last one. They could have got permission from the commissariat to do the last meeting. I, therefore, cannot call it defiance,” Khaya Moyo said.
