Mugabe savages war vets

By Tendai Kamhungira and Blessings Mashaya

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe yesterday launched a scathing attack on boastful war veterans, many of whom are strong backers of embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is said to harbour presidential aspirations.

Party insiders told the Daily News on Sunday last night that the attack may have been directed at war veterans minister Chris Mutsvangwa, who is seen as leading efforts to replace the post-congress Zanu PF’s national political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, with a former liberation fighter.

“Vamwe vanoti handibviswe. Unobviswa, teerera zvinotaurwa nevamwe (Some say they are untouchable and can’t be removed from their positions. They can be removed and should listen to what others say). This is a people’s party, it’s not your party.

“Zvekuti ini ndiri ngana ndakaenda kuhondo iwe hauna kuenda kuhondo, nonsense! (there are those that discriminate others based on war credentials. That is nonsense). We should not hear that at all from anyone,” Mugabe charged.

The nonagenarian went on to praise vice presidents Phelekezela Mphoko and Mnangagwa for not flaunting their war credentials.

“Ava varume vaviri, vanaMphoko naMnangagwa handisati ndavanzwa vachiti ini ndakaenda kuhondo, ava havana (I have never heard Mphoko and Mnangagwa boasting about their liberation credentials and chiding others for not being true war veterans),” he said.

Mugabe’s sentiments resonate with his wife Grace’s recent views that she expressed in October — and which thrust her in the eye of a storm after she was accused by her detractors of attacking war veterans.

“There are some who think that because they fought in the war to liberate the country, their war credentials give them the right to do what they want. Are you the only one who fought in that war?

“We will end up asking you if anybody forced you to join the war because there are many others who also went there. We all did, as our parents, brothers and sisters played their part as well,” Grace said then.

She later explained that her party detractors had missed the context under which she had expressed the sentiments.

“Vanhu vanopedzisira vaakubvunza kuti wakaenda wega here? They can go further kuti kuhondo kwacho wakaitei (People will end up asking if you were the only participant in the war … what did you do during the war?),” Mugabe asked further yesterday.

“They (war veterans) sacrificed yes. But they are not the only ones. Even ordinary people back home sacrificed their lives.

“Some don’t know where their relatives are until today. Some were arrested, sent to prison. All those were forms of the struggle.

“It was not just a gun that won the war, it was a combination of various fights, some political and some even economic and obviously the gun being the main norm.

“One of the war veterans who is a good example is (Joseph) Chinotimba. He is down to earth. Haashori (he never criticises others) and he is practical. He went to war and missed his education, but he is now a member of Parliament. People chose him,” Mugabe added.

He said that some war veterans had lost elections because of their poor attitude.

“Where they show rudeness, the people will refuse them. Vanhu vanoti ko ichi chava chiizve (people won’t support them as they will wonder what is happening).

“I know some commanders who lost elections like in Masvingo where no one won elections. The likes of (Josiah) Tungamirai the former Airforce commander never won an election. This is because some of them have bad attitude and this will have a bad bearing on our war veterans,” Mugabe said. Daily News