Outrage over war veterans’ rant
By Blessings Mashaya
Zimbabweans yesterday reacted angrily to war veterans’ push for members of the opposition to remove Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti as leaders of the MDC Alliance. The former freedom fighters attacked the two saying they were in bed with former president Robert Mugabe.
Addressing the media in Harare on Tuesday, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) secretary-general Victor Matemadanda said Biti and Chamisa must be kicked out because they lobbied for an extension of sanctions by the United States of America (USA) which obliged them.
The war veterans also laid into Mugabe who they claimed is now siding with the MDC Alliance leadership and promised to march to the Robert Mugabe International Airport to change its name back to Harare International Airport.
Although they have previously claimed to be apolitical, specifically after being removed from the top table by Mugabe in 2016, the facade is now coming off and war veterans are now openly chanting Zanu PF slogans while at the same time belittling Chamisa, who was only two years old when the protracted liberation war ended.
“The MDC Alliance is not moved by such grandstanding and empty threats by an illegal grouping of charlatans bent on confusing court proceedings and shattering the dreams of the people of Zimbabwe. They do not want a fair hearing of the MDC Alliance electoral petition,” the MDC said in a statement.
“The MDC respects the gallant heroes of the war of the liberation-— both the deceased and the living —who fought for the right to universal suffrage of one-man one-vote which a few like Matemadanda misguidedly seek to overturn and disrespect.”
MDC said the unfortunate utterances were meant to influence the Constitutional Court’s outcome.
“We are aware of the ill-intention of the renegade grouping of these so-called war veterans to intimidate the judiciary before the constitutional hearing and trial proceedings of the electoral fraud application filed by the MDC Alliance.”
Children of the Zimbabwe War Veterans Association (Cozwa) said their parents are being misrepresented by a few “opportunists.”
“To them, democracy is democracy when it suits their interests, to them Zimbabwe will only be Zimbabwe when it is only their interests protected.
“As children of the real liberation heroes and heroines, we are saying the ‘few war veterans’ should not misrepresent the voice of the struggle for independence. We strongly believe they are out of order and need to be reminded that sanctions are a creation of violated human rights. ”
Zimbabweans also went on micro-blogging platform, Twitter, to express their disappointments with war veteran’s utterances.
Constitutional law expert Alex Magaisa said Matemadanda is “confused”.
“When you listen to the likes of … Matemadanda berating Chamisa for allegedly grabbing power, you would think … Chiwenga and his troops were playing cops and robbers with Mugabe last November,” Magaisa tweeted. Daily News
