Mugabe gives in to war vets

By Chengetayi Zvauya

President Robert Mugabe has given in to demands by war veterans to meet him to discuss their demand for $20 000 payout each and their welfare. Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association secretary general Shadreck Makombe confirmed the development.

“We now understand that our patron president Robert Mugabe is now ready to meet us as we are vigorously pursuing what is due to us as stated in the War Veterans Act that is the pension money, education and funeral funds,” he said.

“We have been actively engaging relevant people and departments to enable us to meet our leader, and I am glad it is going to happen soon.”

Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba was not immediately available to verify the claims. But Makombe said war veterans had embarked on a vetting exercise of their membership countrywide.

“The last war veterans’ census exercise was carried in 1996 to 7 before we received our gratuities. Now many of us have since died, so we do not have an accurate figure of the living and dead comrades,” he said.

Zimbabwean war veterans have demanded $1 billion in fresh gratuities and diamond mining claims in Marange. Makombe said the demands they were making were legitimate and justified because globally countries honour their war veterans by paying them.

“People want to make sensational stories about the payment of war veterans and have wrong perceptions on the meaning of our gratuities yet it’s our right,” said Makombe. He dismissed suggestions that they were holding government to ransom by demanding money when the country’s coffers were empty.

“We are not cry-babies, we have been following protocol in terms of wanting our benefits and we are not talking of things that are out of this world but our rights which must be honoured.

“We made our presentation of demands to Parliament two weeks ago and it has not changed. Everyday we are reading stories in the press that there is diamond looting and all we are asking is to be given our share of the diamonds so that we can improve our welfare. We are getting old and we must be rewarded for liberating this country.”

In a shock appeal before Parliament’s Defence and Home Affairs committee last week, the ex-combatants’ representatives Makombe and retired major-general Richard Ruwodo said their 50 000-strong members wanted $20 000 each, and gem mining concessions in the eastern part of the country. Daily News