President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to return Zimbabwe
People's Revolutionary Army (Zipra)'s properties seized by government in the
80s.
Mnangagwa made the landmark decision to return the seized
properties when he met with the Zipra veteran's leadership at State House last
month.
Former Zipra fighters have accused President Emmerson
Mnangagwa of having double standards after government unveiled plans to
compensate white commercial farmers, but remained mum on properties seized from
the war veterans at the height of Gukurahundi.
Former president Robert Mugabe's government grabbed
properties bought by Zipra war veterans with their demobilisation money after
he accused the Joshua Nkomo-led Zapu of plotting to topple him.
The government has refused to return the properties, some
of them occupied by the Central Intelligence Organisation such as Magnet House
in Bulawayo.
John Gazi, who is the chairman of Nitram, a company owned
by the former fighters, said the properties seized by the government included
farms, 4 000 head of cattle, more than 30 000 chickens and vehicles.
Other properties were service stations and buildings, which
the former fighters envisaged would generate income for them. The majority of
the former Zipra fighters are now wallowing in poverty.
Gazi said they were surprised to see that the government
was in a hurry to compensate white farmers, but was not willing to give them
back their properties.
"An example of the brutality of the Mugabe regime was
the seizure of Nitram properties, which were looted, denying other people an
opportunity to enjoy independence from the colonialists," Gazi said,
Gazi said Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi's claims that
the government would not return the Zipra properties because they now belonged
to Zanu-PF as a result of the Unity Accord were misguided.
"Ziyambi is mistaking the Unity Accord between-PF Zapu
and Zanu-PF to a non-existent agreement between Nitram Private Limited and the
government," he said.
Outspoken former Zipra cadre Max Mnkandla said war veterans
who contributed $50 each towards the purchase of the properties would not rest
until the assets were returned to them.
"We are not stupid that we can buy our property and
donate it to somebody without any profit," he said.
"We want to put the record straight that Zipra, as a
military side, was not involved in discussions to do with the properties.
"What was signed for and agreed upon among other
things was the withdrawal of (the Fifth Brigade) from Matabeleland."
Former Zipra intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa pulled
Zapu out of the Unity Accord in 2008 saying Zanu-PF was not fulfilling its part
of the bargain.
The agreement was signed in 1987 to end the killings of
civilians by the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland and Midlands. Daily News
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