War vets cry foul over 'purge'

Mashonaland East Provincial War Veterans chairperson Daniel Sigauke has expressed concern over the ouster of their members from key positions in the ruling party's provincial structures.

Members of the war veterans in Mashonaland East Province who were deployed in the provincial party structures were recently relieved of their duties, a move which the war veterans viewed as a ploy to neutralise their influence in the province's political affairs.

The association has since held a provincial coordinating committee meeting where the purging of its members was declared null and void. The association also passed a vote of no confidence in the provincial political commissar, Herbert Shumbamhini, and want him to be recalled on allegations of interfering with operations of the war veterans.

In an interview with The Herald after the war veterans' provincial coordinating committee meeting held at the provincial party offices in Marondera recently, Sigauke condemned the purge of war veterans saying it was a violation of the December resolution by the Zanu-PF Central Committee.

"The deployment of our members was done after a resolution was passed by the party's Central Committee in December last year. Our members were then deployed on January 1, they did not just find themselves in the structures but were there on merit," Sigauke said.

"The party's provincial leadership liaised with our association before our members were deployed.

"Surprisingly, our members were removed from the party structures and the association was not even consulted. We are very disappointed, one of our members for example who was the vice chairman of this province was removed from his post. As an association we say no to that."

He said they did not recognising the decision by the provincial party leadership and urged it to reverse the decision.

"We feel that the provincial leadership should reconsider their move because we are totally against it, our members should continue doing their duties," he said.

"The provincial party leadership must adhere to the dictates of the December resolution passed by the ZANU-PF Central Committe."

Sigauke said war veterans in the province are convinced that some elements in the province were promoting G40 ideologies and were working to destabilise the ruling party.

"We strongly feel that there are some elements aligned to the G40 cabal in the province, those are the people who do not want war veterans in the structures because they know we will expose their motives.

"We strongly appeal to the party leadership to look closely into this matter because we are of the view that there is G40 influence in the province," Sigauke said.

He said all the nine districts in the province had passed a vote of no confidence in the provincial political commissar, Herbert Shumbamhini, for interfering in their operations. He said among other reasons, Shumbamhini had failed dismally to unite party cadres.

The party's provincial chairperson, Joel Biggie Matiza, said the party did not remove war veterans from the provincial party structures. He said there were some members of the association who were there in an acting capacity and these were ordered to resume their official posts.

"No one was fired from the party structures," Matiza said.

"For example, the provincial vice chairperson was in that office in an acting capacity and now he is going back to his post as secretary for science and technology of the party, so we still have war veterans in the structures."

On why the provincial party leadership did not consult the war veterans' association when they made decisions before redeploying the same, Matiza said the party can make decisions without consulting its organs.