Zanu PF dumps war vets; uses youth militia for 2018 elections
zwnews.com Political Reporter- Simba Moyo
The ruling party in Zimbabwe, ZANU PF is allegedly booting out war veterans from farms and resettlement areas, replacing them with youths loyal to it, in a bid to rig the forthcoming elections.
War veterans in areas like Nyatsime, Beatrice Farms, Norton, Mazowe, and Bindura farms have been the first victims, they say the ruling party is taking advantage that they don’t have offer letters, so it makes them vulnerable, to the extent that they can’t resist being moved out, nor can they contest it in the courts or any other platform.
“We are being victimised for political gains, ZANU PF is aware that we will not vote for it, so they are booting us from the farms and bringing in youths loyal to the party to take our place.
“We are powerless, we do not have offer letters, so there is no basis for with we can resist being moved. When they come they will tell you ‘you have no ownership of this land’ and we are moving you,” said a war vet in Beatrice, who declined to be named.
War veterans who recently spoke to zwnews.com publication during our tour of Mashonaland Province confirmed that they are being moved from the farms and resettlement areas, which is now a major area where ZANU PF is looking up to, for votes.
“This is an element of vote rigging, they are planting loyal youths in these areas, who will vote for the party in exchange for being given the land we have been occupying. Opposition parties should be aware that this is a way by the former liberation party to rig elections,” said Fambai Mudhadha, a war vet based in Mazowe.
The ruling party expects that the people they resettled will vote for it, and after the fall out with the war vets the party is worried that these constituencies if left occupied by the former freedom fighters who have since withdrew allegiance ZANU PF, would benefit the opposition.
Over the years, the war veterans have been blamed for being at the forefront of keeping President Robert Mugabe in power. Facing imminent ouster in 2008, the war veterans were used by the Mugabe regime to torture opposition supporters and raping of defenceless women to retain aging ZANU-PF leader to power.
The war vets fired the first salvo in which they openly challenged the President Robert Mugabe and criticized what they called ‘the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the President and his cohorts’ and further that this has resulted in a collapsed economy, rampant corruption and suffering of people.
Since then, the two had been at no talking terms, with the war vets telling Mugabe that they will not vote for him and his party anymore. Mugabe in turn, had told them to go to hell, saying they are no longer relevant to him, neither are they bigger than the party.
“Some of us today believe that by being a war veteran it is a passport that they can rule, no this person knew what he was doing, he was disciplined,” said Mugabe while burying a national hero recently.
