People First leader Joice Mujuru’s party has urged war veterans to confront Robert Mugabe.
The party issued the below statement calling on all ex fighters to boldly tell Mugabe to his face reminding him that he owes his political survival to their sacrifices.
The press statement read:As a democratic, inclusive and people centred party, whose main thrust is to BUILD our beloved country through the promotion of the values of the liberation struggle, of self-determination, self-dignity and self-pride, we urge the war veterans, to seize the opportunity of their meeting with President Robert Mugabe, to remind him and his government, the need for a peaceful and democratic Zimbabwe where every citizen enjoys the fundamental freedoms of association, choice, speech and the right to demonstrate and choose a government of their choice.
We also believe that war veterans, as nationalists, would take this opportunity with their patron, to register displeasure at the economic policies pursued by Mugabe’s administration that are inimical to industrial growth and foreign direct investment.
It is firm belief that the veterans of our liberation struggle will speak against the threat to close the few industries and banks that are soldiering on in an economic environment that is already investor unfriendly.
While we believe that the welfare of our war veterans is of utmost importance, we also strongly believe that it is against the liberation war values of self-determination and self-dignity, to reduce these gallant sons and daughters of the soil to charity cases which survive on the benevolence of the state president.
It is therefore incumbent upon the war veterans to speak and act against a system that has pauperized them while enriching a few unscrupulous individuals who obscenely flaunt their corruptly gotten wealth in the form of 50-bedroomed mansions while the generality of Zimbabweans reel under very debilitating economic conditions and are barely able to feed themselves once a day.
We urge war veterans to remind Mugabe that true leaders do not boast about the houses they build. They boast about the investment they make in people – how they BUILD people.
Zim PF acknowledges the multi-faceted roles played by our parents, zvimbwidos and mujibhas in supporting the armed struggle; the suffering visited upon the detainees and restrictees whose crime was to call for a just and democratic system in Zimbabwe. We also cherish the supreme sacrifice of those comrades who left the country to go and train as freedom fighters so that they could liberate the people of Zimbabwe.
We acknowledge that many lost their lives and that many were maimed for life in the liberation of this country and it is with this understanding that we urge the war veterans to remind Mugabe that he owes it to those who paid the ultimate price, to make Zimbabwe a democratic not pariah state.
Zimbabwe People First recognizes the invaluable contribution of the War Veterans during and after the liberation struggle.
We shall continue to encourage and promote their involvement in building a democratic and prosperous nation without the current inherent and pervasive vestiges of corruption.
The recent attacks on War Veterans cast a dark shadow on ZANU PF as a party and government. Who would have dreamt that 36 years after independence our liberators would be targets of attack by the party and government they helped create?
Under normal circumstances we expect the patron of the War Veterans, who is also the president of the Republic of Zimbabwe, to be fully behind the expectations of our liberators and their fight for the unhindered exercise of their fundamental democratic rights including that of congregating for the purposes of demonstrating. Anything other than that poses a big question of “whose side is he on and why?”
Zimbabwe People First has War Veterans as an integral part of the structures and organs of the Party to ensure that they respect that hierarchy and in turn are respected and represented in the same Party structures.
We therefore urge all concerned to respect and give the War Veterans the dignity they deserve from all sectors of the community while, at the same time, urging war veterans to be the nationalists that we know they should, and fight for the total emancipation of the people.
They should seize this opportunity to speak against the ills of their patron’s government, the plight of the generality of Zimbabweans and how this situation can be turned around, fundamentally, by democratizing our politics and national governance and pursuing economic policies that put the needs of our people first.
Together we are builders of Zimbabwe in peace!