War vets say pro-Mugabe meeting ‘illegal’

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

A shadowy group of war veterans believed to be working for a Zanu PF succession faction, Generation 40 (G40), will meet in Harare on Wednesday purportedly to show solidarity with President Robert Mugabe.

However, a senior ZNLWVA leader who declined being identified for fear of victimisation told Nehanda Radio that the purported meeting of the war vets was illegal.

“The current senior leadership of the war veterans (association) has been told it is not welcome at the meeting.

“The truth, though, is that it is an illegal meeting organised by people who have no mandate to represent the association. This is the work of people who have always been fighting us as war vets,” said the official.

He added: “It would always be suspicious that junior cadres can invite seniors to a meeting. It’s not heard of and it seems the president (Mugabe) is just being twisted around to attend meetings he has no idea about”.

He said the ZNLWVA had applied for a court interdict barring the self-professed war veterans from organising events on behalf of the association.

The elected war veterans’ leadership was in the morning of Wednesday locked in an emergency meeting at an undisclosed venue, according to Victor Matemadanda, the secretary general who said he could not comment.

The Wednesday meeting follows another by the elected Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) leadership last Thursday where provincial representatives denounced Mugabe as a dictator and announced their disengagement with them through a communique.

The communique bemoaned the current economic crisis and bad management by the Zanu PF government while war vets leaders at the meeting vowed that they would ignite debate on Mugabe’s succession despite a party ban.

Government-controlled media flighted adverts of the solidarity meeting which Mugabe, 92,  apparently hastily agreed to as his hold on power continues to be threatened by internal forces.

The group meeting Mugabe on Wednesday is fronted by George Matenda, the ZNLWVA lands secretary who is linked to the G40 faction.

Said Matenda: “It is a solidarity meeting with our patron. All comrades are invited to come and show their support to their patron.”

None of the top leadership of the war vets association, among them the chair, Christopher Mutsvangwa, secretary general Victor Matemadanda and spokesperson Douglas Mahiya features in the programme.

The current veterans’ leadership has publicly thrown its weight behind a faction led by Emmerson Mnangagwa who is locked in a bitter succession turf war with G40.

In a space of two months, G40 has organised three events to show solidarity with Mugabe in what critics say is a strategy to curry favour with the aged leader who still insists on seeking re-election at the 2018 general elections when he is 94.

The G40-aligned grouping has urged war collaborators to attend today’s meeting where Mugabe is expected to address the veterans’ welfare.

The Mutsvangwa-led camp recently met Mugabe at an indaba where the president promised to look into their social plight by, among other things, availing money for their children’s school fees.

The meeting came after the war veterans attempted an unsanctioned meeting that was violently dispersed by the police who used tear smoke and water cannons on them.

Last Thursday, the war veterans accused the government of lying to them and rapped Mugabe for circumventing them and doling out large swathes of land for residential purposes to youths, who have become the president’s new support base.

The land gift was announced when thousands of youths who were addressed by party heavies aligned to G40 marched in Harare.

Mugabe is seen as blessing the current solidarity marches and meetings as part of his divide-and-rule scheme whereby he allows the factions to fight each while grovelling at him.

Both factions have repeatedly vowed their support for the president even though, secretly, they both reportedly consider him as a burden.

The balance of power in the two factions has been see-sawing, with Mugabe managing to command the feigned loyalty of both camps at a time he is largely considered a failed statesman. Nehanda Radio