Leaders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) have accused President Robert Mugabe of using them to achieve his goals and then dumping them afterwards. The veterans said this when they expressed their support for Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa, two of the ZimPF elders who were expelled by Joice Mujuru. However, Gumbo and Mutasa fired Mujuru in turn, and claim to be the new leaders of the party. The war veterans also claimed that they
The war veterans also claimed that they would support any leader who had respect for their founding principles, and slated Mugabe for supporting people such as Zanu PF commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere who they termed a “nonentity.”
Douglas Mahiya the spokesperson of the ZNLWVA said:
There is no one who can say I was not used at Shake-Shake (Zanu PF headquarters). We were all used at different levels and doing different things, but we couldn’t realise it
I have never seen an army general, who will go to war and later fire his troops soon after winning the war to accommodate nonentities like Kasukuwere. This is manipulative.”
The war veterans also claimed that they would support any leader who had respect for their founding principles. Victor Matemadanda, the secretary general of the ZNLWVA said:
Our membership and mobilisation will support a candidate, who has respect for our founding principles. We are not here to seek for membership or anything, except that, as comrades, there will be a time when we are going to meet as the veterans of the struggle.
We will count each other, those who are with us and those that are not with us. We will ask what is meant by getting lost, because we were taught that the majority is the superior to the minority. When the minority remains with the other side (Zanu PF) and the majority is outside, what do you call that?
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