Ex-Zipra, Zanla war veterans puts more pressure on Mugabe

Pressure continues to mount on President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF to resolve the current economic and political crises bedevilling the country, as former Zipra and Zanla combatants seek to close ranks and demand change from the regime.

ZPRA Veterans Association spokesperson, Robert Ndebele in a statement yesterday said: "As a matter of principle, we stand with them on constitutional issues, good governance, deteriorating economic and political situation.

"We feel that everybody, and not just war veterans, needs a sober and joint effort to resolve the issues confronting our motherland."

Ndebele said, as war veterans, they had made a mistake of aligning the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association with Zanu PF over the years.

"The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association departed from its founding values and principles of being non-partisan and a welfare organisation and became an unprincipled arm of Zanu PF," he said.

"As a result, it inevitably got entangled in Zanu PF's factional fights that characterised Zanu in exile. We do not, as a matter of fact, wish to be dragged into those wars."

Ndebele noted that, at one point, Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko, was asked "to shut up as the war veterans were trying to resolve Zanla/Zanu issues".

"This created the impression that the association (Zimbabwe War Veterans Association) was not meant for ex-ZPRA cadres. We were not part of the Mgagao Declaration that made Robert Mugabe president of Zanu and will not comment on it," Ndebele said.

"While we sympathise with, and in no way condone the victimisation, arrest, prosecution and persecution of (war veterans' spokesperson Douglas) Mahiya and others, we must draw attention to the fact that in the 1980s, ZPRA commanders and ordinary cadres, some of whom were serving in the Zimbabwe National Army, were subjected to the same abuse and arrests on trumped up charges. At no time did any of our Zanla counterparts raise a finger in protest.

"However, we remain open to genuine dialogue on any platform for unity as we demonstrated during the liberation struggle, that anticolonial struggle."