The government made a major climb-down yesterday, saying
today’s war veterans meeting, which was meant to elect a new executive for the
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA), was no longer
elective, but a general indaba to discuss their welfare.
War Veterans ministry permanent secretary Asher Walter
Tapfumaneyi said the government had no business to convene an extraordinary congress for the former fighters. This came
less than a week after he indicated that the meeting was to enable the former fighters
to elect new leadership to replace the Christopher Mutsvangwa-led executive.
“The ministry has a right to have conversations with its
clients and the association (ZNLWVA) must desist from seeing lions behind every
bush. The ministry has no mandate and cannot call for an elective congress of
the association. We are technocrats and deal with technical matters in the
management of the affairs of war veterans,” he said.
But, ZNLWVA spokesperson Douglas Mahiya was not letting up.
“[President Robert] Mugabe has refused growing calls for an
elective Zanu PF congress to choose his successor. His argument is that Zanu PF
is a voluntary organisation that those of us who were expelled cannot be
involved in. The ZNLWVA is a private voluntary organisation that is not
registered with neither the Ministry of War Veterans nor Defence, but with the
Ministry of Labour as a private voluntary organisation,” he said.
“If Mugabe is really sincere, he must call for a meeting of
all war veterans, not this nit-picking (sic) that Tapfumaneyi is engaging. They
are picking malleable individuals that they think can be manipulated for their
nefarious ends. Government has no power to implement what is being demanded by
the G40 faction in Zanu PF.”
Tapfumaneyi, who at the weekend, said today’s meeting was
for brainstorming on how “to proceed with the directive to remove those who
were expelled from the party”, seemed to have changed his tune yesterday.
“It is the membership of the ZNLWVA that has power to call
for a congress. The ministry is not a war veterans regulatory authority and
cannot call for a congress. The association has no obligation to register with
us, but we cannot be stopped from talking to individual war veterans because
they are our clients. We are also aware of the political directive regarding
the association, but that will be implemented through a different process by
those responsible,” Tapfumaneyi added.
Zanu PF politburo secretary in charge of the former
fighters and Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi reportedly urged the ruling
party to trigger a process to remove Mutsvangwa and his team as the
association’s leaders. This was picked up by different leaders at the youth
rally addressed by Mugabe in Bindura two weeks ago where War Veterans minister
Tshinga Dube was tasked with making sure the decision was implemented.
Mutsvangwa has threatened to approach the court for an
interdict to stop the process, but Tapfumaneyi argued the association
represented a small percentage of all surviving ex-fighters.
“There are about 34 090 surviving war veterans and the
association only represents, according to unofficial figures, just about 23% of
these people. That means the other people are not represented by Mutsvangwa’s
lobby group,” he said.
The ZNLWVA has accused Mugabe’s wife Grace and Zanu PF
youth league leader Kudzanayi Chipanga of pushing Dube to defy a High Court
order that recognised Mutsvangwa as the legitimate leader of the association.
Newsday
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