Will cherish our heroes forever

Destroying a people's history is one way colonialists engaged to delay Africans from finding common ground to remove the yoke of political colonialism. Having decolonized the mind from such antics later day alarmists, the likes of John Robertson's, maliciously tout of government's yearly US$82 million expenditure on war veterans with the purposes of undermining the armed struggle and its icons.

Sanity departed Robertson's contribution when he deliberately left out Rhodesian and British veterans who are being paid by the Zimbabwean government for the massacres they carried out in Zimbabwe. Perhaps they deserve the payouts by virtue of Mr Robertson's omission. Such biased contestation of the matter leaves Robertson a racist cultivating subversive seeds of course on a much more arid ground.

Although very little is known about the operations of the Sealous Scouts, Robertson fits well in the skeleton of stories told about this clandestine group giving birth to yet another conspiracy theory against Zimbabwe. What Robertson is insinuating is, as Zimbabweans we should damn the bridge we have crossed by disregarding the vanguards of the liberation struggle.

War veterans, political detainees and restrictees reflect on the importance of the protracted liberation movement which marked the genesis of a new Zimbabwean generation altogether. By killing or tainting the image of this community, we are boldly undermining the struggle and birthrights it forged back on Zimbabweans.

They say we study history in order to understand the past, present and the future. Both First and Second Chimurenga are thus forever binding in the political matrices of Zimbabwe and how it is run. A plethora of liberties were born form the wars, identity and land were also forged back to the ordinary Zimbabwean. Anything then that tries to reverse the gains from the protracted wars becomes anti Zimbabwe and be disregarded.

Robertson from this line of thinking becomes the modern day colonialists re-echoing the opposition's mantra of giving back Zimbabwe to the colonialists paving way for yet another generation of liberators.

Whatever book the opposition and its sympathisers are reading from is utterly misleading them to build castles in the air and imagining too perfect a country far beyond the standards of heaven. This brings me back to demands of the MDC-T to have a security sector reform. The desired reform is one that will come with loopholes allowing enemy penetration and infiltration. Surely no sane person or government would want that in as much as it would not want to have its heroes neglected.

However, how the chap came up with such atrocious statistics perhaps could be the starting point for probing Robertson's claims. The war veterans we know, from the Sunday Mail's "Chronicles of the second Chimurenga" or ZTV's "Chimurenga Files" and real life do not lead luxurious lifestyles to compliment the hefty pecks Robertson is imagining.

Also are the claims of ghost war veterans siphoning the funds meant for these gallant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe whose welfare at the moment is still wanting. Robertson could do the nation a great deal by availing such individuals.

In fact the sacrifices of these former liberation fighters could not adequately be rewarded and quantified. The Americans and the world over cherish such individuals and because of their demonstrated patriotism they constitute a stack of the countries' decision making bodies the world over. This is even explained in their commoditization of culture whose main proponent is the film industry. Films such as "The Pearl Harbour" and "We were Soldiers" service to honour the American heroes in various battles and wars. How much those and other films cost ahead of other pressing issues remains unknown. For Robertson to then worry over a possibly exaggerated US$82 million is unfounded and malicious intrusion of Zimbabwean politics.

Sentiments such as Robertson's only reflect on the need to improve the lives of these selfless individuals who gave much to the cause of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. The government can start by nodding to their resolution of being exempted from paying toll fees just like the traditional leaders and members of parliament.