War veterans yesterday broke ranks and said they were withdrawing their support for President Robert Mugabe, accusing the veteran leader of “declaring war” on them.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
In a hard-hitting and emotionally-charged communiqué at the end of a meeting laden with high drama, the ex-combatants described Mugabe as manipulative and the greatest beneficiary of the country’s war efforts against racial discrimination and segregation.
The war veterans said Mugabe, who promised 2,2 million jobs in the run-up to the 2013 general elections, had failed to use his mandate.
“We note with concern, shock and dismay the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the President and his cohorts, which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle in utter disregard of the Constitution, as demonstrated by (among other things) the deliberate neglect and abandonment by the party president of the masses, who are the foundation upon which the liberation war was fought and won,” the war veterans said.
They said they would not support Mugabe in 2018 and declared that their beleaguered chairman, Christopher Mutsvangwa, would remain their leader despite being fired from Cabinet, the ruling party and Parliament.
Addressing a meeting of the former freedom fighters, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association national political commissar Francis Nhando called on Mugabe to resign, describing him as a hard sell.
“We are saying this country will only go up when Mugabe steps aside because his management is no longer respected by anyone, including his own ministers,” Nhando said.
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“If he announces his retirement date, the economy will improve because there is nobody who will invest his money where the future is uncertain. Nobody will lend money to a 92-year-old and if he does not step aside, 2018 will be the most difficult year to campaign for us as war veterans.
“How do you campaign for someone you do not like and who does not like you, either? The relationship between us as war veterans and the President has broken down, he and the party don’t like us anymore.”
The former fighters described the recent Zanu PF million-man march as “ideologically bankrupt [move] organised in honour of a bankrupt leadership” and scoffed at the continued internal purges in the former liberation movement.
“When Mr Robert Mugabe arrived in Mozambique, he walked in to join those of us who were already armed and prosecuting the war as political soldiers. He was not the president of the party, but we made him so, thinking he was one of us,” the statement read.
Click here to download the full war veterans’ statement
“This depicts the President’s lifetime character of always manipulating situations and alienating others from vantage positions for his personal interests.”
For the first time, the former freedom fighters openly accused Mugabe of eliminating his opponents during the bush war and creating factions for his own ends.
“The President’s systematic elimination of those in the struggle’s leadership and his continued outfoxing of colleagues in leadership after independence up to this day is unmistakable. The current situation, whereby the party is fragmented with formations and so-called factions, is clearly the President’s project again to outfox his peers in leadership,” the ex-fighters said.
Mugabe, the war veterans said, had “always survived on divide-and-rule tactics in order to protect his party presidential position each time he has felt threatened”.
They said the 92-year-old leader was behind the creation of the Gamatox faction that precipitated former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s demise along with other party stalwarts.
“Typical of the President, he has mobilised those of his Gamatox nemesis to boost his G40 project, rewarding them with all sorts of gifts, including ministerial posts, despite the charges originally made against them like treason,” the communiqué added.
They said Zanu PF should credit them for its rural strength “yet the President thinks we have no right to challenge his bigoted political views”.
“His persecution, decimation and expulsion of war veterans from the party under his watch is legendary. From the days of the liberation struggle, history records that his egocentric approach to party and national politics has led to the demise of many a party member on flimsy grounds. We say not anymore. Never shall we allow him such free rein,” the belligerent statement continued.
And the emotive Gukurahundi episode came for special mention. “Labelling of peaceful war veterans as dissidents induces in us a sense of shock, dismay and revulsion in light of the history of the 1980s. It will be recalled that our fellow war veterans and masses in the western regions suffered brutal purges, which only the Unity Accord pacified,” the war veterans said.
“Particularly worrisome in this context is the fact that while the man has dismissed the sad period as a ‘moment of madness’, such language belies his insincerity in the Unity Accord.
“He (Mugabe) should be extending honestly remorseful regret over this foul deed, yet he appears to extol this as some macabre virtue. His continued resort to genocidal language should worry every right-thinking citizen as to his true nature. This is unacceptable to the memories of those who perished during this time.”
The former freedom fighters condemned Mugabe’s continued abuse of State power.
“We, therefore, abhor instances where instruments of State power have been used to brutalise private citizens who share our desire to exercise our constitutionally entrenched rights and freedoms.
“We categorically reject the notion that those expressing views different to those that we hold are agents of foreign powers and, therefore, enemies of the State,” the war veterans said, adding such thinking “contemptuously implies that Zimbabweans lack capacity to rationalise issues, think through their problems and take decisive action”.
The former freedom fighters said Mugabe should be reminded that “respect must not be equated to fear”.
“We do not subscribe to the unbridled exercise of power without consultation, where threats of genocidal magnitude are made against us. He should be reminded that he remains the major beneficiary of the national war effort at every stage, including the Unity Accord,” they said.
Mugabe, the war veterans said, had used his privilege of leadership to build a patronage system around himself, “which has turned into a personality cult”, adding the veteran Zanu PF leader was now bent on turning the current generation against former freedom fighters.
The war veterans listed a litany of scandals including those at Zesa, Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara), Ziscosteel, NetOne and Zupco among many that indicated the failure of Mugabe’s leadership.
“The above instances demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that the party leader has absolutely no clue as to the difference between public funds earned from taxation of the people and private individual income,” the statement concluded.
