The warning
from the ZPRA veterans highlights growing tensions within Zimbabwe’s ruling
elite as factions within Zanu PF continue to wrestle over Mnangagwa’s political
future.
Addressing a
press conference at the Bulawayo Media Centre on Thursday, ZPRA Veterans
Association National Spokesperson, Buster Magwizi, expressed unwavering support
for fellow war veterans who recently spoke out against the proposed extension
of Mnangagwa’s tenure beyond 2028.
“Our solidarity
is not just a message of solidarity. It is an expanded contribution for
political correctness,” Magwizi stated.
“The veterans
who stood out in a press briefing last week led by Blessed Runesu Geza in
Harare were very correct because no one else has got the audacity to advise the
government correctly on what to do or the leadership on what is straight and
what is crooked. We hold the sanctity of the constitution sacrosanct.”
Magwizi
stressed the country’s independence was won through the sacrifices of war
veterans from both ZPRA and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
(ZANLA), yet successive administrations have sought to divide the two
liberation forces.
“This country
has been trying all along to separate ZPRA from ZANLA yet they are all war
veterans. Yes, you will remember that even in animals, they do not see the same
days. Now that everyone else is seeing the light, we stand in expanded
solidarity at a confluence of ideas for political correctness,” he said.
Magwizi also
rebuked those who dismissed the veterans who spoke in Harare as “mad, crazy,
and biased,” warning such dismissals were misguided and motivated by selfish
interests.
“We would like
to advise such kind of veterans who are misguided, who want to benefit out of
corruption, that their days are numbered,” he said.
Magwizi was
referring to Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe’s recent remarks aimed at
reassuring Mnangagwa’s loyalists that plans to keep him in power until 2030
were still in motion.
Deputy National
Spokesperson for the ZPRA Veterans Association, Joakim Moyo, condemned the push
for a third term, labeling it fraudulent and a direct assault on the
constitution.
“There has been
a litany of injustices which make us sick as ZPRA veterans. We have always
stood as people advocating for political correctness, and we are prepared to go
down, dying doing the same thing,” Moyo declared.
“We are a
people who want to adhere to the constitution as a national guide and live by
it. The spirit and the flesh of it should be observed by everyone, regardless
of size. Probably let me get down to the constitution and say, we stand ready
to defend the constitution of Zimbabwe, and would like to warn all those
pushing the 2030 mantra that it is fraudulent.”
Moyo said
Zimbabwe’s constitution is a product of national consensus and democratic
principles, warning against any attempts to subvert it for political gain.
“The current
constitution was arrived at as a nationally driven issue. Everybody was
consulted and everybody spoke. And our constitution observed the democratic
principles that underlie what you call a democracy,” he said.
Moyo also
provided historical context, arguing that Zimbabwe’s governance had been marked
by illegalities from the start, particularly regarding the failure to properly
integrate ZPRA and ZANLA forces after independence.
“There was a
failure to integrate both ZPRA and ZANLA. These forces had sweated to bring
independence. They were soldiers of political correctness. But if you start
bringing some in and leaving others out, elbowing some out, you are already
creating an imbalance. And we are a lame state as it stands today because we
stand on one foot, if not on half of it.”
According to
Moyo, freedom fighters expected the state to uphold its promises, but instead,
they have been neglected and left to struggle.
“A democracy at
its best is where everybody participates in the daily decision-making of what
affects his or her life. Now people articulate that in a constitution, and you
hear noises of a party, an individual, or a section wanting to tamper with the
constitution, then you start asking yourself, how sane is this?” he noted.
“Let me jog you
through the history so that we buttress why we are saying the constitution
should not be tampered with. First, in 1980, from the Lancaster House Talks,
there was an agreement which was legal that we are the Patriotic Front.
“But when we
came here, somebody reneged and started entering here as a fraction of the
Patriotic Front. That was illegal in the first place. Illegality from the
start, garbage in, garbage out throughout.
“We are asking
to be recognised as a people who are committed, as people who want political
correctness. If there was political correctness, veterans of the struggle would
be leading the economic war because they had a practical hands-on approach on
how to turn around an economy.”
Moyo called on
Mnangagwa to take decisive action against those advocating for constitutional
amendments.
“The
constitution is bigger than any party, is bigger than any individual, is bigger
than any section, and it should be an all-inclusive referendum where people say
what they want and the things should be done correctly,” he said.
The former
freedom fighter warned that attempts to push for an unconstitutional third term
could lead to serious political instability.
“The
presidential term is a two, five-year, limited issue that goes alongside the
life of Parliament. Now, there are noises we hear that we want to change the
constitution. That is what I can call in scientific terms, a mutative move.
When genes go mad, they are not constructive but destructive. So this noise of
trying to say we want to change the constitution, who are they?”he questioned.
Moyo reminded
President Mnangagwa of his own public declaration that he would not seek a
third term, questioning the sincerity of his statement given the actions of his
supporters.
“(Mnangagwa)
has said this and the party is saying that, yet the very two sit together and
plan whatever they want to say. His statement is questionable. It is clear what
he says is not what he believes in. We are appealing to him to live by his
word, walk his talk,” Moyo said.
“This
revolution is not bloody and does not need to be bloody. Nobody should lose his
life now. We lost enough blood during the liberation struggle.” CITE
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