Arrest Grace: War vets

By Fungi Kwaramba

War veterans have threatened to take the law into their hands if police do not arrest First Lady Grace Mugabe who last called on President Robert Mugabe to name a successor.

The angry former freedom fighters under the banner Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) said they would storm the Zanu PF headquarters if their preferred candidate does not become the ruling party’s next leader.

Speaking at a hastily-arranged press conference after Mugabe’s stern warning to the military top brass to stop meddling in politics and Grace’s clarion call for her husband to name a successor, the ZNLWVA secretary-general Victor Matemadanda said they will not allow a monarchy to be established in the country.

Apparently, incensed by the fact that they were locked up last year after they had demanded for Mugabe’s resignation and his replacement with Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the ZNLWVA said that the Zanu PF leader has no monopoly to determine the country’s future.

“Sometime last year, many people including ourselves here were expelled from Zanu PF having as many labels as they can be. We were accused of having wanted someone to succeed the president. But what we had done was to tell the people our armed struggle revolutionary structure, what we agreed to be the structure of the revolution but the same offence was repeated by Tshinga Dube and they were demonstrations in Harare and Bulawayo that he must be fired because he had said the president must appoint a successor.

“The same offence is now in State House, the first lady has committed the same offence from an unknown base unlike ourselves because we have a stake, but the only stake the first lady has is being married to the president.

“We have been waiting to hear that dockets have been opened and that riot police have gone to the State House to arrest a person who has committed a crime that we committed and that we were arrested for.

“If the application of the law is uniform, one or two scenarios should happen, one that the first lady is arrested or the expulsions and suspensions that were done on the youths chairpersons and ourselves are null and void. The suspended youths should go and lead their provinces and I and other comrades should be the in the next central committee meeting,” said Matemadanda.

Raising the spectre of bloodshed, something that political experts have warned of if Mnangagwa does not succeed Mugabe, Matemadanda said gone are the days when Mugabe used to solely determine what direction the country has to follow.

“The first lady should stop dreaming, the final say on Zimbabwe does not come from her husband. His word is not final that is what we used to say it can’t. People will vote for their candidate. If Grace is not dealt with accordingly we will storm the party and they would rather kill us, we are going to fix things in Zanu PF. We have reached the point of no return,” said Matemadanda. Daily News