Chimene, war vets talk peace

THE Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Mandi Chimene has brought the two warring factions of war veterans in Manicaland to the round-table to ensure that peace prevails.

Manicaland has two warring factions – one led by Gift Kagweda which is aligned to the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association leader, Chris Mutsvangwa and the other led by Robert Gumbo which sides with the national executive led by Chimene.

The Kagweda camp regards the Gumbo camp as renegades who splintered from the association, while the Gumbo camps accuses their nemesis of rebelling against President Mugabe by aligning themselves with Mutsvangwa, who insults their patron President Mugabe.

The Kagweda faction has the support of six districts – namely Mutasa, Makoni, Buhera, Mutare, Zimunya-Marange and Chipinge, while the Gumbo camp enjoys backing from Nyanga and Chimanimani districts.

The peace talks came amid widespread dissatisfaction and allegations of factionalism, corruption, closure of war veterans' offices by Chimene, establishment of parallel structures in the province, contemptuous treatment of freedom fighters within Zanu-PF and negligence of their welfare.

Cdes Kagweda and Gumbo, together with their executive members and district chairpersons met on Wednesday in Mutare for peace talks.

"A truce has been brokered to end rivalry among war veterans. I do not want frictions among us as war veterans.

"We must sober up and find each other. We have worked together during the war. I want to work with a united Manicaland and whether you like me or not, we must unite.

"We need to iron out all thorny issues to create a robust and socially coherent body that supports and is strongly behind our patron President Mugabe," said Chimene.

"I cannot operate in a province without unity either in the party, in the youth league, and war veterans.

"You are the stakeholders of Zanu-PF that is why we are having these peace talks. We want team work and unity.

"We do not want to work as if we have not worked together before. We need to be frank with and correct each other," added Chimene.

The meeting was adjourned to a future date to allow them to ponder on how best they can merge and guidance from their ministry on how the provincial executive can be reconstituted.

The move to engage Chimene was started by the Kagweda camp early this month after the camp, which was accused of trying to mobilise anti-Chimene demonstration in the province realised that a confrontational approach was not likely to yield the desired outcome.

The war veterans have also added the voice to calls for the expulsion of Saviour Kasukuwere as the Zanu-PF political commissar, and proposed for a dialogue with youth league representatives to demystify any suspicions and ensure a rapport exists between the two vital cogs of the ruling party.