Zimbabwe’s veterans of the liberation struggle, long time allies of ageing President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party, have turned against the 92-year-old leader whom they described as a “dictator”.
“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,” said the veterans of the freedom struggle in a statement issued after the former freedom fighters met on Thursday.
Until the about turn on Thursday Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 36 years, relied on the war veterans to scare off political opponents and dissenters.
In recent weeks the embattled nonagenarian has faced growing demands for him to step down with unrest increasing in the country.
The political instability fueled by succession battles within Zanu PF coupled with an economic meltdown have made matter worse.
The veterans’ attack on Mugabe comes in the wake of stay aways organised by Pastor Mawarire and his #ThisFlag campaign and #Tajamuka led by Stern Zvorwadza. The stay aways coincided with strikes by civil servants over delayed pay. Before that cross border traders rioted in BeitBridge after Mugabe’s government banned imports of basic food stuffs and other commodities from South Africa.
The Zimbabwe government’s continued inability to pay civil servants salaries on time has exacerbated the situation.
On Thursday the war veterans said they were disappointed by Zanu PF’s poor leadership, saying it had failed to use the mandate it got from the 2013 elections to address the economic challenges facing the country.
The former liberation war fighters said there were many issues that were causing restlessness within their ranks, among them brazen greed and selfishness displayed by Zanu PF leaders at the expense of the general populace.
Saviour Kasukuwere, the local government minister and Zanu PF national commissar, who has often clashed with war veterans reportedly, built a monstrous mansion with 50 bedrooms.
The former freedom fighters said Mugabe’s recent utterances referring to them as dissidents evoked memories of the 1980’s when war veterans in Matebeleland and the Midlands provinces where decimated during the Gukurahundu massacres which claimed more than 20 000 lives.
“Particularly worrisome in this context is the fact that, whilst the man has dismissed that sad period as ‘a moment of madness’, such language belies his insincerity in the Unity Accord,” said the veterans in their strongly worded statement.
“He should be extending an 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 that time.”
The veterans also accused Mugabe of manipulating the party and its systems in order to entrench his hold on its leadership and that of the country.
“When Mr Robert Gabriel 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 ZANU (PF), but we made him so, thinking he was one of us. Our decision to make him the president of ZANU (PF) was accepted here at home, regionally by the Frontline States, and internationally.
“The President forgets that his release from jail was not out of sympathy by his jailers, but because of our war effort. That is why, after his release, he joined us. Yet, today, he refers to us as irrelevant!
“This depicts the President’s lifetime character of always manipulating situations, and delineating others from vantage positions for his personal interests.”
The war veterans said none of Mugabe’s colleagues with whom he was jailed with during the struggle for independence had benefited from the country’s independence like he had as he had elbowed them out.
“The President’s systematic elimination of those in the struggle’s leadership in Mozambique, 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, so-called factions, is clearly the President’s project, again to outfox his peers in leadership.”
The vitriolic attack on Mugabe came after the war veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa was expelled from Zanu PF. Mutsvangwa was earlier fired from his War Veterans minister post and this week he lost his MP position.
The veterans said they continued to be persecuted and expelled from the party despite having campaigned and ensured victory for Zanu PF in all the elections after independence.
“As War Veterans, we are dismayed by the President’s tendency to indulge, in his usual vitriol against perceived enemies, including peaceful protesters, as well as War Veterans, when the economy is on its knees.
“He has a lot to answer for the serious plight of the national economy. His distaste and disregard of divergent views is unfathomable and must be stopped.
“We are dedicated to stop this rot which he has nursed over time, to everyone’s disgust.”
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