HARARE – Disaffected war veterans — who served divorce papers on President Robert Mugabe last month — have now gone a step further, announcing yesterday that they would no longer support Zanu PF only going forward, but would allow their members to embrace political parties of their choice.
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The stunning development, that will once again rock the already reeling ruling party to its foundation, comes after the restless former freedom fighters recently embraced radical pressure group, Tajamuka/Sesjikile, which has been leading protests against Mugabe and Zanu PF’s misrule of the past 36 years.
The seismic announcement also comes at a time that warring Zanu PF bigwigs are in serious panic mode over plans by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to enter a 2018 electoral pact with former vice president Joice Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) outfit.
“We are the people’s soldiers and we will continue to fight for the people of Zimbabwe. People should not be stopped from interacting or joining any political party of their choice from now onwards. We are going to be on the people’s side.
“We own this country and we will never form another political party because all the political parties are linked to us. We are referees and Zanu PF was formed after Zapu was banned. We are now allowing every Zimbabwean to support any political party of their choice, whether Zanu PF or any other party,” war veterans’ spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya told the Daily News.
Ahead of yesterday’s announcement, speculation had been rife that the war veterans were mulling forming their own political party.
But even this decision not to back Zanu PF will come as a massive body blow to the ruling party as it has been unthinkable, until now, to associate ex-combatants with any other political party.
It was only when they met with Tajamuka’s leadership last week that there was the first gobsmacking hint that the former freedom fighters were now ready to embrace the country’s much-maligned opposition.
“We don’t choose whom we meet with, as long as they are agreeable to the idea that Mugabe must resign urgently and immediately to give our country a new impetus.
“And yes we have unprecedented developments with Zanu PF which is splitting, and war veterans are finally playing their custodian role, and the opposition forces seem to be coming together again as well.
“Importantly, we have the steady rise of citizens’ movements and voices such as Tajamuka and others coming through,” Tajamuka spokesperson Promise Mkwananzi said then as he welcomed the war veterans’ gesture of meeting with his organisation.
War vets have been one of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s strongest pillars of support over the past five decades, playing particularly significant roles to keep the nonagenarian in power in the hotly-disputed 2000 and 2008 elections which were both marred by serious violence and the murder of hundreds of opposition supporters.
But last month they repudiated their long-standing ties with Mugabe when they issued a stinging communiqué in which they derisively described the nonagenarian as a “hard sell” for the eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections.
Tellingly, war veterans’ secretary-general Victor Matemadanda, who was among those arrested in the aftermath of their fallout with Mugabe, also said yesterday that their role was “no longer to sing Zanu PF praises”.
“At the moment we are not thinking of forming a political party. What we are working for is for the attainment of people’s rights. What is important now is not a political party but to push for the rights of the people.
“We must confront the problems that people are faced with. I personally do not think the problems we have need a political party. We must see the challenges that we are faced with as referees.
“You hear people saying pasi nanhingi (down with so and so) but that is like creating a violent society. The slogans we make expose people to violence and must stop. It is not a problem to have differences as people, but unfortunately there is no tolerance in our political parties, with Zanu PF leading the way,” Matemadanda told the Daily News.
This is major change in the thinking of the war veterans, who until now have associated all dissenting voices with anti-Zanu PF and so-called regime change “merchants”.
However, Zanu PF bigwigs have not taken lightly to the war veterans’ decision to end their long relationship with Mugabe and the party, which goes back to the 1970s, when the country waged a brutal bush war against Ian Smith’s minority government.
Addressing a hastily-convened meeting of Zanu PF supporters at the ruling party’s Harare headquarters last month, Mugabe warned the disaffected war veterans that they would be dealt with severely, including through the use of extra-judicial suppression methods that his former liberation movement incorporated during the country’s independence war — such as incarcerating dissenters in inhuman dungeons where they were forced to live like caged rats.
After his address, police launched a savage crackdown against the war vets leadership and arrested five officials, including Matemadanda and Mahiya, both of whom are currently out on bail.
This week, Zanu PF has been in palpable panic over moves by Mujuru to form a coalition with Tsvangirai, launching a savage propaganda blitzkrieg which included assaulting the political legacy of Mujuru’s late husband, Solomon ‘‘Rex Nhongo’’ Mujuru — who died in a mysterious fire at his Beatrice farmhouse in August 2011.
Poodle State media went into overdrive, blaming the late decorated soldier for the impending coalition, after the two opposition heavyweights sent fresh shivers down the spines of panicking Zanu PF bigwigs at the weekend when they publicly flaunted their readiness to join forces against the ruling party ahead of Zimbabwe’s eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections.
In a move that political analysts described as “very significant”, Mujuru held hands and also joined Tsvangirai during another massive demonstration in Gweru that was organised by the MDC.
And in a reciprocal development that was also variously described as “historic”, Mujuru — who was hounded out Zanu PF in December 2014 on untested allegations of plotting to oust and assassinate Mugabe — was later joined by the MDC top brass at her own rally in the same city.-Dailynews
