'Mugabe's actions put his family in peril'

WAR veterans have warned that President Robert Mugabe risked eroding his legacy and exposing his wife, First Lady Grace Mugabe, and children to Zanu PF vultures by refusing to step down.

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) secretary-general Victor Matemadanda made the chilling warning in an interview with NewsDay yesterday.

"Mugabe is soiling his own legacy by overstaying. There is no need to force things. He is creating trouble for his children by antagonising everyone, we feel for his wife and children," he said.

"It will not take 10 minutes after Mugabe's demise for Grace to start running. Even his children, they probably understand what is happening now and might need to sensitise him on how his actions could stoke problems for them after him."

Matemadanda said Grace was being led down the garden path by "a criminal group in Zanu PF".

"Grace is allowing herself to be abused by criminal elements in Zanu PF to create enemies. She is being used by people with an ulterior motive to destroy Zanu PF and she should be warned," he said.

"We made Mugabe popular, we removed Ndabaningi Sithole and educated the masses that he was our leader. But now he thinks we are so helpless that we should only be talking to him when our artificial limbs have problems or when we need bandages for the wounds that have not healed since the war."

Matemadanda accused Mugabe of manipulating party systems for the benefit of his family and cronies.

"Mugabe thinks we are his labourers, who should have no say in the country's or Zanu PF politics, but the question is: Why are they trying so hard to fund and push for the formation of a splinter association?" he asked.

"He finds it proper to call (Zanu PF youth league deputy secretary Kudzai) Chipanga a comrade, but does not think those who fought for him are his contemporaries.

"What a more blatant case of manipulation of party or government processes and institutions, do we need than to look at how, as Zanu PF leader, he has forced his wife on the women's league, when there are better-placed ex-combatants who could lead. He has taken his nephew (Patrick Zhuwao) to lead the ministry in charge of youths in the country and the most important policy in the form of indigenisation. There is no worse form of nepotism than that."

War veterans' chairman Christopher Mutsvangwa said Zanu PF remained transfixed with the activities of his association "because they realise the party is a shell without former freedom fighters".

"It confirms our assertion that Zanu PF, without war veterans, is a body without a soul. Wartime deserters and puerile chancers riding on a marriage certificate will never endear G40 to Zanu PF. They must recall no Zimbabwean family was spared the effects of bereavement, maiming, rape and other ravages of war. Those painfully departed relatives are an eternal bond. G40 are empty political vessels hanging on to fortunes of human caprice and unavoidable temporary sojourn on earth," he said.

Mugabe has told the war veterans to "shut up" and concentrate on welfare issues, but Matemadanda accused the 92-year-old Zanu PF leader of "selective amnesia".