'Mugabe has abandoned a whole generation of Zimbabweans,' says daughter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has abandoned a whole generation of Zimbabweans and it will take a new administration to go through the painstaking exercise of documenting them, opposition leader Joice Mujuru has said.

Mujuru, former Vice-President in Mugabe's government before she was forced out at the end of 2014, told a South African television station that victims of an army crackdown in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980's, popularly known as Gukurahundi, were still suffering while in exile.

"We have heard harrowing tales of what Zimbabweans are going through. Qualified Zimbabweans have abandoned their professions to become waiters, while others die in abject poverty. For a freedom fighter like myself, this is not what we expected when we fought," she said.

Mujuru suggested the 92-year-old leader was now out of touch with reality.

"My worry is whether President Mugabe knows what his people are going through? Does he have the real picture? That his people have had to dig for food in dumping grounds, children as young as four and veterans of the liberation struggle from the Zipra side.

"Some are victims of Gukurahundi and have no documentation ran away from home and now have families here. It is no longer about politicking, this is reality. We are not coming here for political mileage, but to try and help South Africa deal with a problem we have created up there," she said.