By Wilbert Mukori
“In 2008, they mobilised us to set up various bases to campaign for them in different parts of the country. We were forced to work against our own brothers and sisters but after that, they didn’t do anything to appreciate our efforts,” said Manicaland war veterans chairperson Angeline Muponda.
If only I had forced the likes of Mutsvangwa, Mahiya, Maponda and all the other war veterans who have expressed similar sentiments to pay a penny each time they complained of how Zanu PF has used them and then discarded them like used toilet paper; I would be a billionaire in my own right!
There are two things these disgruntled war veterans have failed to grasp. First, they must stop pretending that they were in anyway coerced to harassing, beating, raping and even killing innocent Zimbabweans to impose the de facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship we have today. They have done all this dirty work out of greed, they were cock sure Mugabe will reward them for helping him become a dictator by granting them a share of the absolute power, the social influence and the material wealth.
“War veterans and collaborators, have over the years served as Mugabe and Zanu-PF’s political power dynamos, playing particularly significant roles to keep the nonagenarian on the throne in the hotly-disputed 2000 and 2008 national elections which were both marred by serious violence and the murder of hundreds of opposition supporters,” wrote Bulawayo 24 Staff reporter in the article War collaborators dump Mugabe.
Mugabe, as the war veterans themselves have now finally realised, use and abused the war veterans and discarded them. Most of them are living in abject poverty, just like the rest of us, the innocent victims of the decades of corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship.
The war veterans owe the nation an apology for betraying the liberation war values of freedom and justice for all in helping Mugabe impose the dictatorship; regardless of whether they are one of the lucky few who were rewarded by the tyrant or one of the many who were kicked in the teeth and now languishing in poverty and despair.
Second, it is clear that most of these rogue the war veterans have not only failed to accept they were wrong and thus repented for doing Mugabe’s no-regime-change dirty work but, worse still, they will do this again.
The war veterans have failed to see that the de facto one-party/one-man dictatorship is evil and is the root cause of the nation’s economic meltdown and political chaos. It is therefore not enough that Mugabe must go but the whole dictatorial system of government must be uprooted and destroyed.
The war veterans have been demanding that the current dictator, Robert Mugabe, must go and replaced by VP Mnangagwa. Those war veterans who have already been kicked out of Zanu PF are realigning themselves with Mai Mujuru or MDC with the view of forcing the electorate to support these just as they have done for Zanu PF. We do not want another dictator or dictatorship!
We want to implement all the democratic reforms design to stop war veterans or anyone from terrorising the people and rigging the vote for selfish political gain. We want the next elections to be free, fair and credible!