ZIPRA war veterans have implored fellow former 1970s guerrilla war fighters not to be coerced by the ruling Zanu-PF party into committing acts of violence ahead of the 2023 elections.

“Zanu-PF does not own war veterans; these belong to Zanu and Zapu,” Zipra War Veterans Association spokesperson Buster Magwizi told Southern Eye.

Zanu-PF was formed after the liberation struggle. War veterans must not be put under duress in order to be used to condition people to vote for Zanu-PF. The ruling party is desperate that they will lose the 2023 elections, they want people who will cause chaos and intimidate others to vote for Zanu-PF,” Magwizi said, indicating that the ruling party was in panic mode after losing support from some war veterans.

Last week, an audio which leaked into the public domain and is currently circulating on social media platforms, called on war veterans in Bulawayo to attend an emergency meeting in Nketa.

“All war veterans, collaborators, detainees, there is an emergency meeting at Nketa war vets offices tomorrow. There is a new circular that has been released, let’s all go and attend the meeting and hear what is being entailed in this circular even the district coordinating committee chairman will be in attendance,” the audio stated.

Some of the recently vetted war veterans, who attended the meeting last week, said they were asked to bring their identity cards, cellphone numbers and receipts of registration to the meeting.

Magwizi said war veterans should not be questioned about their credentials because they were vetted and do not need to be affiliated to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

Bulawayo Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson Cephas Ncube said he was not aware of the Nketa meeting.

Zanu-PF spokesperson and ZNLWVA chairperson Christopher Mutsvangwa last week said the military and war veterans must assist Zanu-PF win next year’s elections because the ruling party, soldiers and war veterans were cloasely related and work together.

-newsday