GOVERNMENT’S re-vetting exercise for liberation war veterans is nearing completion, with authorities preparing to gazette approved names in a process that can expose thousands accused of falsifying wartime credentials.
This emerged in the Senate when Dorothy Kadungure asked Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Affairs minister, Monica Mavhunga, for an update on the re-vetting process.
“The minister once promised us that they were going to re-vet the war veterans. So, I would like to know the progress on that issue,” Kadungure asked.
Mavhunga confirmed that the vetting exercise has already been conducted across multiple categories linked to the liberation struggle.
She told the Senate that the process initially focused on war veterans before including war collaborators in 2023 and 2024.
The minister said the remaining stage involved gazetting the names, which she said was at an advanced level.
“What is now left is that their names should be gazetted, which is at an advanced stage. It can only be done after there is an agreement between the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Affairs,” she said.
The re-vetting drive follows decades of controversy over the authenticity of self-proclaimed war veterans.
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The government discovered that hundreds of individuals, including top Zanu PF officials, falsified their liberation war credentials and submitted disability claims to benefit from the War Victims Compensation Fund.
Some are still serving in the government.
In 1997, the government bowed to pressure from war veterans and paid out Z$50 000 each in unbudgeted gratuity and increased monthly pensions.
At the time, critics argued that genuine war fighters were being short-changed while impostors drained the fiscus.
Sources close to the current vetting process alleged that several individuals flagged during the latest exercise have been quietly removed from beneficiary lists, though the ministry has not released official figures on the number of fake veterans identified.
The vetting has also cast a spotlight on sitting and former ministers who have previously drawn from the war veterans’ fund.
Critics have long argued that some senior government officials, including ministers who saw limited or no front-line action, have benefited from the war veterans fund.
Mavhunga said plans were at an advanced stage for the names to be gazetted.
“What follows is their monetary issues,” she said.
The gazetting process is expected to formally recognise eligible cadres and potentially pave the way for access to benefits administered under the ministry.
