Mnangagwa's govt has forsaken Zipra war vets

ZIMBABWE People's Revolutionary Army (Zipra) war veterans have repeated claims that President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has forsaken them, leaving them wallowing in poverty.

Zipra was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African People's Union party which waged a protracted civil war in the 1970s together with the Zimbabwe African National Union's Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army.

Zipra veterans association spokesperson Buster Magwizi said there was no political will to address their longstanding complaints.

"Government has placed war veterans under subjugation. It appears to the public as if the war veterans are benefiting something, whereas there is nothing at all," Magwizi said.

"The issue of allowances, medical care, human security, labour migration and food security. All those things have not been given to us. All these conditions should have been provided for."

He accused the current regime of using war veterans for its own selfish interest.

"These war veterans were only being used as tools and they have come to realise that these politicians of ours are just there to make their own money. They are not good leaders. There is no sufficient political will by those in the State authority to do the right thing and to address our grievances," he said.

Zipra war veterans association secretary Petros Sibanda said they were being ill-treated.

"We were never taken care of since 1980. We have been complaining for the past 42 years and there is no change. The war veterans can't even afford to access medical services, they are trying to make ends meet," Sibanda said.

"After the war, there was a rehabilitation programme that we were supposed to go through to help us get over the war traumas. These were disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration.

"These were necessary counselling sessions that were (supposed) to help us to adjust to normal life and reconcile with our families. Some people went to war against their families' will and up to now, they haven't been reconciled with their families. The government was supposed to intervene in such issues."

Recently, Defence and War Veterans minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri met Zipra combatants in Bulawayo where she said government was taking care of the welfare of all veterans, including Zipra ex-combatants.