War vets to meet Mugabe - they can demand all they want but not veto

"Members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) are seeking another crisis indaba with their former patron, President Robert Mugabe before the end of the year over their unmet demands," reported Fingaz.

"The highly irritable ex-combatants had a meeting with the President on April 7 this year, their first in 20 years, where they presented a long list of grievances."

We all know what happened at their first meeting twenty years ago; the war veterans presented an equally long list of grievances but all with one common theme – the war veterans were poor and they too wanted a share of the looted wealth President Mugabe and his ruling elite were enjoying. President Mugabe promised them a share of the loot and made a down payment of Z$50 000 on condition that the war veterans help keep him and Zanu-PF in power.

The Z$ 50 000 payment was unbudgeted and resulted in a warping 70% one-day devaluation of the Z$; the nation was on the slippery slope leading to the scrapping of the Z$ in 2008 when inflation peaked at 500 billion percent.

On the political front the war veterans took up their role of keeping Mugabe and Zanu-PF in power with demonic zeal. The war veterans, led by thugs like Jabulani Sibanda and Joseph Chinotimba, rod roughshod over the ordinary people denying them their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life.

In a cruel twist of fate, the war veterans have become the victims of their own political success. Whilst they share the credit of helping Zanu-PF rig elections and thus extend the regime's stay in power; the regime used its extended stay to drag the nation deeper and deeper into economic trouble. 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has resulted in total economic meltdown sending unemployment soaring to 90%, public health and education services have all but collapsed, etc. Poverty, hunger, disease and death rule the land and war veterans have not been spare the economic hardships and misery.

When the war veterans met President Mugabe in April this year their list of grievances had not changed much from the 1996 list – they were still poor and were demanding a share of the looted wealth Mugabe and his inner circle were enjoying. The only new addition on the list was the demand for G40 leaders to be fired.

The war veterans have since the April meeting stated that they are "the stockholders of Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe and everyone else are stakeholders who come and go!" In other words, they have the veto on who leads Zanu-PF and the country, the rest of us have a vote which can be overruled with the veto. They since turned up the pressure, they now want President Mugabe to step down and allow Mnangagwa to take over.

It is tempting to see the escalating show down between the Mutsvangwa led war veterans and President Mugabe as proof of warning power of the later. Many Zimbabweans have been yearning to see Mugabe go and therefore will be very pleased to see that finally happen. We should, however, be concerned about what happens next!

Will Mutsvangwa and his band of war veterans, emboldened by their success in pushing Mugabe out of office, not seek to impose Mnangagwa just as ruthlessly as they have imposed Mugabe for the last 20 years on the grounds they are "stockholders of Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe"?

We must never lose sight of the fact Zimbabwe is in this hell-hole because the nation was stuck all these last 36 years with a corrupt and tyrannical regime. Mutsvangwa and his band of war veterans are insisting on blaming President Mugabe and a select few in his inner circle to blame for the country's economic mess because they do not want the dictatorship completely dismantled and lose the veto power. It is nonsense that individuals like VP Mnangagwa and Mutsvangwa himself as a former cabinet minister have not played a role in Zimbabwe's economic mess. It will be folly to believe that removal of Mugabe and one or two others will be enough to end the mismanagement, corruption and greed, the cancers killing the nation.

Zimbabwe's deep rooted economic and political mess demand a holistic solution which is the complete overhaul of our corrupt and tyrannically political system and the restoration of every citizen's freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections. The nation is grateful to the war veterans for their selfless sacrifice in the fight for independence but to grant them a veto on who rules the country will make a mockery of their claim as having liberated the people when all they did is make themselves the new oppressors.