War Veterans Vow Not To Campaign For ZANU PF

The Liberation War Veterans (LWV) says its members will not be lured by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’ Government to campaign for ZANU PF ahead of the 2023 elections saying the Government has reneged on numerous promises it made to the ex-combatants.

Speaking to The NewsHawks last week, Liberation War Veterans chairperson Amos Sigauke claimed the Government has falsely promised them money if they campaign for the ruling party. Said Sigauke.

If it used to happen before, it will not happen again. The comrades are now wiser. If it used to happen, we will not allow that.

That will not happen again, we cannot be used again to serve a purpose to have few people lining their pockets.

We can’t have a handful benefitting from the country’s independence while the rest suffer. We can’t continue having such a situation.

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In saying they are pushing for some mujibhas to benefit, they want to push their own youths to get in and benefit and get onto the feeding trough ahead of 2023, but war veterans are wiser than that. We cannot have that.

They have failed to deliver for the last 41 years. We are not asking for the impossible, all we are asking for are our dues.

We are asking for our money which is legally binding but was stolen by some of them. Imagine as we speak 39 of our comrades are before the courts for demanding what is theirs.

Imagine reporting every Friday at our age with the different (health) conditions we have.

I personally go for dialysis and if I do not go to report I am arrested. We don’t take that nonsense.

Thirty-nine war veterans were arrested in October last year in Harare during a protest for better stipends and charged with inciting public violence.

The 39 are out on bail and are required to report every Friday to their nearest police stations, among other conditions.

Sigauke also accused President Mnangagwa’s Government of prioritising the interests of white former commercial farmers at the expense of freedom fighters. He said:

Now they are negotiating with white farmers to compensate them their US$3.5 billion and they did that because they fear them.

They are subservient to the whites and where were these people during the war? Most of them ran away from the bush and were in hotels and universities while sacrificing others and they still want to sacrifice war veterans now but we are not going to do that, never again.

He said Mnangagwa has made numerous promises to war veterans since April 2018 but none has hitherto materialised. Said Sigauke:

They lied and in 2018 he said he will meet us every April. How many Aprils have passed since then? We can’t be lied to when he meets whites almost all the time and having dinners and all.

Why do they launch their things in hotels and not Zimbabwe Grounds? We can’t be fooled like that. We are wiser than that.

We are all war veterans and bigger in our own right and they must not scare us to say shefu says this or that. We are all equal and of the same age, we fought the same war and no one should threaten anyone.

Tell me, who is in government now who was not there in 1980? What new things do they want to deliver now that they failed to deliver then?

Everyone is crying and it is another way of hoodwinking the people by registering their own youths to benefit from the funds and campaign for them in 2023.

They should be sincere and they hired private lawyers to defend against giving us money.

Last week Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri said the Government will address the plight of the ex-combatants and their pensions are being reviewed upwards to match those of the uniformed forces.

More: The NewsHawks