Jabulani Sibanda
People have used corruption to amass wealth and now they want to use that status they have as now they are a ruling elite in our country.
We don’t derive leaders that way. When (President) Mugabe became the president of Zanu he was a school teacher, he was not a billionaire; and when (Dr Joshua) Nkomo became the president of Zapu he was a trade unionist — a worker in the Rhodesian Railways. People were laughing at Tsvangirai that he was a tea boy.
All the people (who were in leadership) knew that the tradition is the qualities of a leader not the amount of wealth and now Zanu-Pf has moved from that. (President) Mugabe was a school teacher when he came in the liberation struggle.
There were (some) very rich people that were out there but people did not go for rich people out there because they knew freedom cannot be bought for any price.
People gave their blood and it’s very painful.
Any future Government, even a million years after this current generation, its roots, the roots of their freedom, are in the blood of the people that fought during the struggle.
Now that we have (some) people that are close to State House being reactionaries. Do not make them the successors of President Mugabe.
What worries people is how safe is the President when surrounded by people that are fighting his legacy.
How safe is the President when the very people that came carrying him on their shoulders, they are being bombarded today by tear gas when they are trying to see their President? How safe is the President?
Seventy percent of my leaders in Zapu were Shona-speaking people and in the military I cannot count how many people were in charge: Mujuru, Mnangagwa all were Zipra.
There came the split because we are weak when it comes to tribalism — the same thing that is visiting us right now.
The fact that people now call themselves a generation does not necessarily mean that they represent a generation.
They are not representing a generation. They are not representing the feelings of a generation.
These people who call themselves a generation, they are just outcasts, reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries that are representing their own philosophy.
The fact that they call themselves Generation 40, are they all 40-years-old?
We cannot and will never accept that.
When we were in the armed struggle we had both the old and the young.
When I campaigned for the President, don’t think I did not know that he was in the late 80s. When I campaigned from 2008 I knew that he was old.
I was not even a member of Zanu-PF.
No one in his right senses can think of roping me into his or her side.
Even when I was removed from that party, I worked outside of the party for five years. They co-opted me into their nine member committee of the mobilising team.
And I am happy that we achieved a peaceful election and I am happy the results were good for the party that I worked for.
I cannot reason with G40 or Generation 50.
Can any person attack a Vice-President of the State, of the country, from the same party, in the presence of the President?
The war veterans are not war veterans in the sense you understand them. They are former freedom fighters. What is being attacked there is not the persons of the war veterans, it’s exactly the foundations of what they fought for.
People have been saying ma war veterans vaka attacker vanhu during elections and I say to them these were not war veterans; this was a third force and the third force will show itself.
And today the war veterans are a victim of circumstances. I have always said the war veterans have never gone out to attack but they have gone out to teach and campaign to the people.
And any youth who laughs and feels satisfied when this happens to the war veterans, they should know that war veterans took the bullet of the enemy with their bodies and they died for him before he was born.
I am no longer part of Zanu-PF I was expelled but (Cde) Mugabe is still my President because he is the Head of State. And (Cde Emmerson) Mnangagwa is still my Vice-President regardless the fact that I am no longer Zanu-PF.
During the 5th Brigade time we tried to alert Government that what is happening out there is not what you might even expect.
And (President) Mugabe gave a good answer when he got the results; he said it was a time of madness.
The signs of that madness now have outweighed the level of madness back then.
That cannot go unchallenged.
Their agenda is to sever (President) Mugabe from his fellow freedom fighters, to cut (President) Mugabe from the core things that we fought for.
I also recommend (war vets chairperson) Cde (Christopher) Mutsvangwa to seek audience with the President, not through a demonstration.
Do not forget, I saw the President myself some years ago, from quarter past three to nine o’clock in the evening and I respected him because he was open to me and I was open to him.
Since then they have created a durawall between myself and the President.
I do not know if they are G40 or what because I do not ask people for birth certificates when I talk to them.
There are a lot of forces that are at play.
Now vanoda kutonga nyika vasina kuirwira.
Yes, they are trying (to lure me) and they will be phoning even now. They are under pressure. They are in the deep and I am not
