War vets changes meeting's agenda

MEMBERS of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) will now discuss the general state of affairs in the country at their meeting scheduled for today instead of issues relating to their welfare.

ZNLWVA secretary general, Victor Matemadanda, told the Financial Gazette on Tuesday that the meeting's agenda had been changed to enable participants to take stock of their achievements so far in terms of what they fought for.

"…we want to assess our prospects as a nation and analyse what kind of political situation Zimbabwe now finds itself in. Are we really a democracy or we are under a dynasty?" said Matemadanda.

"We want to look at why are we facing this terrible economic meltdown and what can be done to rescue the nation from this abyss. We want to evaluate to see what could be our contribution to the economic turnaround."

Ahead of the meeting, the ex-guerrilla war fighters prepared a document highlighting what they called the people of Zimbabwe's grievances.

Crafted after a whirlwind countrywide tour during which they collated information, the document is dubbed the Freedom Charter.

It borrows heavily from the South African Freedom Charter of 1955, widely celebrated in that country as a major political milestone.

About 15 000 former freedom fighters are expected to attend today's meeting.

Matemadanda said the indaba will also discuss issues to do with the ongoing national healing process.

He said the process should include the war veterans who fought in the liberation war, which he said was one of the central aspects of the healing process.

"We already have different committees working on different areas and they shall be presenting their reports at the meeting," he said.

Police had blocked today's indaba, but ZNLWVA rushed to the courts where an order was granted for them to proceed with the meeting.

Around this time last year, the war veterans were tear-gased by police when they tried to congregate in Harare.

Government then organised another meeting, which President Robert Mugabe presided over.