Zimbabwe’s government says a surprise statement by the country’s independence war veterans attacking President Robert Mugabe is traitorous and treasonous.
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“This is a major development in the political landscape of the country considering that the war veterans have been campaigning and supporting the Mugabe regime for the past 36 years”, Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe in the capital, Harare, said Friday by phone.
A growing number of other war veterans have joined the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association in calling Mugabe, 92, a “dictator”, demanding he quit and vowing not to support him in the next elections in 2018 if he does not.
As Mugabe shows signs of frailty, senior members of the ruling ZANU-PF party are positioning themselves for the post-Mugabe era.
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According to Jongwe, there is no unity in the war veterans camp and Mugabe will continue to ride on the dividends arising from his favored strategy of divide and rule, which he has consistently applied against his foes and allies alike since independence.
“We note with concern, shock and dismay the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the president and his cohorts, which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle in utter disregard of the constitution, as demonstrated by the deliberate neglect and abandonment by the party president of the masses who are the foundation upon which the liberation war was fought and won”, the war veterans charged.
“He was voted for to run the country and genuine war veterans know that”. “Mugabe has a dilemma with this one”.
“We are saying this country will only go up when Mugabe steps aside because his management is no-longer respected by anyone, including his own ministers”, said Nhando. They were in Mozambique.
This comes as it emerged that another document – Blue Ocean – that was also linked to the freedom fighters, had not originated from them. So many are suffering. “You will see more and more of them criticising Mugabe”.
Faced with an opposition likely to rally behind the youthful Nelson Chamisa if elevated to represent the Movement for Democratic Change, led by ailing Morgan Tsvangirai, a poor economy, cash crunch with no specific paydays for soldiers, and policies hurting the importation of goods sustaining livelihoods in the country, Mugabe could face a serious challenge come 2018. After it became clear the MDC was rapidly gaining support, it was war veterans who led the invasion of thousands of white-owned farms, not least because the MDC received considerable support, both financial and logistical, from white farmers and their enormous work force. Mugabe is not going to win an election.
The logistics of kicking Mugabe out of State House might appear hard, but all they need is a ZANU PF veto. He will be gone before then.
A war veterans’ conference held in April and presided over by Mugabe drew hundreds of top army personnel.
The government in Harare lives from hand to mouth, spending 82% of its national budget on public sector worker salaries.
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Mugabe had no worldwide standing any longer in a world in which Zimbabwe no longer played any role, he added.
