By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) is mulling bringing disgruntled war veterans into its fold.
This would represent a dramatic shift in Zimbabwean politics as war veterans were arch-enemies of the main opposition party that they labelled agents of regime change since 1999 when it was formed.
Veterans terrorised and tortured Morgan Tsvangirai, the party leader, and thousands of his supporters for allegedly being used by the west in a plot to unseat Mugabe.
In the early 2000s, security bosses, veterans in their own right, issued a statement in which they declared that the Zimbabwean presidency was a straight jacket that would not be taken over by someone without liberation war credentials, referring to Tsvangirai.
However, the political sands are shifting, and Nelson Chamisa, one of the three MDC-T vice presidents, told the local media in Harare at the weekend that his party was engaging the war veterans.
“I thanked…Morgan Tsvangirai, when he appointed me one of the vice-presidents and I said to him, let me be in charge of the war veterans, so that we give them money and restore their dignity among other things,” he said.
“We haven’t engaged them so far, but our hands are not limited. We will reach out to war veterans because they do not belong to any political party. They belong to all of us. We are ready to engage the liberators of this country (because) it’s a necessity. They are a repository of our history and our future,” he added.
The war vets leadership recently issued a communique in which it announced that the ex-combatants were disengaging with President Robert Mugabe over leadership failure and dictatorial tendencies.
They said they would no longer campaign for him, after decades of running his violent errands and disparaged Mugabe, 92, as too old for international financial institutions to support his government with money.
Mugabe’s police tear-gassed the war vets when they attempted to hold an unsanctioned meeting recently, and several ex-combatant leaders have been arrested and taken to court for allegedly issuing the communique. Nehanda Radio