Matemadanda rubbishes Chamisa claims

Zanu-PF secretary for War Veterans and Deputy Minister of Defence and War Veterans, Victor Matemadanda has rubbished claims by MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa that he is “enjoying alone” while fellow war veterans suffer.

Mr Chamisa said this while welcoming National People’s Party chairman Dzikamai Mavhaire and other defectors to his party.

Matemadanda, who is Gokwe Central legislator, said it was just unfortunate that the opposition leader was desperate to get the attention of “real war veterans”.

“It’s naive for a person who has hopes to lead this country to think that any person who once belonged to Zanu-PF is a war veteran. This is a clear sign of desperation,” he said.

He said Mr Chamisa was a son of a Rhodesian African Rifles soldier who does not know the definition of a war veteran.

“May he respectfully be told that if Mavhaire is a war veteran, then he is the class of Chamisa’s father, a Rhodesian war veteran and not the veteran of the liberation struggle,” Matemadanda said.

Matemadanda said Chamisa was misinformed as Mnangagwa has already done a lot to improve the life of the war veterans including party cars for the day to day running of their departments.

“If Chamisa lives in Zimbabwe he should know that (Douglas) Mahiya is my deputy in the Politburo and that he is full time secretary in my department.

“Cde Headman Moyo is a director in the same department. In fact, the department has several war veterans. We are not like him who is only concerned about himself,” he said.

“The President has already done a lot to improve the life of the war veterans, President Mnangagwa and the entire war veterans’ leadership are called to serve their people and they are all happy.”

Speaking at the official welcome ceremony of the former National People’s Party (NPP) members at the MDC headquarters this week, Chamisa expressed concern over the welfare of the liberation fighters lambasting Matemadanda for being selfish.

“Matemadanda iyezvino akazorwa nhopi, vana Mahiya kana domwe zvaro  re nhopi haana kana kupuhwa..,(Matemadanda is now enjoying alone yet others like Mahiya have nothing)

“We want our war veterans to be respected for the role that they played and this is the beginning of what we want to do.

“We now have a focus to go into the rural areas, our focus has always been urban focused, but without rural focus and going forward you will see that starting from this election, we want to reverse. More votes must come from rural areas,” Chamisa said.