Maridadi, a War vets ministry not the answer

I just noticed James Maridadi, Mabvuku MP's motion that there be possibly a stand-alone Ministry of War Veterans. His argument is that war veterans continue to suffer from neglect. Also, there is a Ministry of Sports and that of Psychomotor.

That means there is no reason for there not to be a Ministry of War Veterans. He argues that such a Ministry could replace Social Welfare in handling pressing needs of our war veterans that include health care, medical bills, housing, amenities, pensions and other related needs.

Such a motion sounds noble but in light of our current situation, we already have a large Defence Ministry. That should be its role to set up a task force to look into issues like:

    Identifying the remains and or tombs of the unknown fallen heroes
    Setting up a Military Hospital and Pharmacy JAMES MARIDADI
    Arranging for prosthetics and related equipment to address war injuries
    Streamlining detailed registers of past and present defence forces and areas of service
    Checking on welfare of war veterans
    Removing fake veterans from the scandalous ghost salary list
    Establishing psychiatric institutions, psychological and counseling services for Post traumatic disorders
    Establishing physical and mental rehabilitation institutions within army hospitals
    Forming war veterans task forces composed of sober patriots who are experienced, and well informed on how to research and address needs of war veterans
    Planning for further skills training and tertiary education to align war veterans' military skills with socially-compatible job market skills as happens in other countries to lower dependency-syndrome problems

The whole current confusion is a result of state-sanctioned corruption. There are plenty of possibilities but the way to implement such remains an uphill struggle. Quite a number of Zimbabwean people never went for military training, were born in the nineties but are receiving war veteran funds without having been enlisted in the military. There are too many fake soldiers receiving military benefits for services they never delivered. This is because of corruption.

To start another Ministry when we already have a Defence budget could sound duplicitous and unnecessary. The best way would be to re-align the current Defence Ministry to include a department that would cater for the yesteryear surviving soldiers and their families while also recognizing the current forces. There is a widening rift between the current soldier and the yesteryear liberation hero because many fail to connect their role and services.

The yesteryear hero lost respect after the Chenjerai Hunzvi scandals in 1999 as many were taken for greedy souls yet their role was noble as we are able to walk on a free Zimbabwe today. The supposed benefits were gobbled up by a few greedy sharks as the ordinary war veterans continued with their journey for suffering. Besides their noble cause, not many were remembered. Those in charge took care of themselves and threw the ladder back into the faces of the ordinary war veterans.

While there is need to cater for the needs of the former active soldier, let us push the Defence Ministry to play that role and not only remember the top 20 military generals in active service today.

Many seem to want to honour the dead at the Heroes Acre than to cherish the services of those still alive. There is so much hypocrisy because the military is well funded. There are funds to cater for those services if the Defence Ministry wants to do it. Nothing is impossible.

We already have a bloated cabinet of Ministers for such a tiny nation like Zimbabwe. We are currently trapped in duplicated Ministries like Higher Education, Primary & Secondary Education supposed to be simply Ministry of Education. The list of duplicated Ministries is endless and the productivity is appalling. Instead of having Directors for Departments we have seen so many Ministries emerge to gobble the budget while doing nothing to show for their very existence. There is no need to create an unnecessary Ministry whose needs can be addressed through a special task force under the Defence Ministry.

To recognize the war veteran is noble but to create an unnecessary Ministry is uncalled for. We may end up with too many Ministries that serve no purpose. We already have more than enough. Establishment of special departments can cure that as we try to stay within budgetary limits and also within our means.

Think tanks too could help form such special task forces to address special needs without a budget for a Mercedes Benz, a Ministerial delegation and related perks.

Your idea is noble James but let us stick to available means, exhaust the channels and resolve the raised issues. There are vast possibilities and diamond revenue resources. The issue is doable once we eliminate corruption and greed among Defence Ministry leaders.

----------
Chris writes in a personal capacity. This article is kindly reproduced through courtesy of http://www.zimeye.org/.