War vets remain defiant

War veterans have drown down the gauntlet at President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF, scoffing at the government's savage crack down on their leadership which they say is akin to what the late Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith and his minority government did to blacks before Zimbabwe's independence.

The restless freedom fighters' defiance comes as their secretary general Victor Matemadanda as well as three other officials, were given bail yesterday after being charged with undermining and insulting Mugabe.
                   
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF continued with its purges yesterday, firing eight war veterans' leaders and a former Cabinet minister.

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association secretary-general Victor Matemadanda, spokesperson Douglas Mahiya, national commissar Francis Nhando and deputy chairperson Headman Moyo, currently in the eye of a storm following the release of a damning communiqué, were expelled from the party yesterday.

Zanu-PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo told journalists following a politburo meeting that four other unnamed members had also been expelled by the national disciplinary committee currently chaired by legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa.