Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association secretary-general Victor Matemadanda last week fired a salvo at the Zanu PF G40 faction, describing it as worse than opposition leader MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
In an interview with a South Africa-based Africa News Network7 (ANN7), Matemadanda said Tsvangirai was a known enemy hence he was better than an enemy within Zanu PF whose motives were unpredictable.
Tsvangirai has since the formation of the MDC in 1999, caused sleepless nights to Zanu PF leader President Robert Mugabe due to his popularity especially during election time.
The Zanu PF leadership also accuses Tsvangirai of inviting Western countries to impose targeted sanctions on government officials, including Mugabe and his wife First Lady Grace Mugabe.
However, as Zanu PF factional fights take twists and turns, war veterans now believe that Tsvangirai was “a better rival” than those in the G40, who were allegedly sympathetic to Grace.
Other G40 proponents include Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo.
The war veterans belong to another Zanu PF faction Team Lacoste, which reportedly supports Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“G40 is the number one enemy. It is the front, the face of the imperialists that we have defeated. It is the one that is destroying Zimbabwe. We are not being accorded enough time to expose them, but I can assure you one day we will expose them. These are enemies within,” Matemadanda said.
“Tsvangirai can be a better enemy because a defined enemy is an enemy you know, but a pretender is much serious, dangerous and can destroy anyone. This is why you see everything is not moving in Zimbabwe. They have brought confusion in the party. They have brought confusion in government and in every other system.
“They have taken over the land around towns and they are leaders of land barons. They are heading every corrupt activity that you see.”
The combative war veteran described their arm together with war collaborators and ex-detainees as the foundation for Zanu PF. He described the organisations as the stumbling block to G40’s corrupt activities.
“They want to give an impression that war veterans have become the laughing stock of this society, but as long as that is not corrected Zimbabwe will continue to nose dive to where we don’t know,” he said.
Matemadanda also took a dig at Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko’s continued stay at the upmarket Rainbow Towers Hotel.
Since his appointment as VP in December 2014, Mphoko has been staying at the hotel, something that has invited ridicule for himself through numerous demonstrations.
“You don’t need a human rights activist telling you where you should go and sleep. Every child, African or European has a home. And you don’t expect a person of the age of Vice-
President Mphoko (to be) without a home. So people want him to go to his home,” he said.
He said it was wrong for Mphoko to equate himself with his predecessors who were humble. Newsday