Pressure continues to mount on President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF to resolve the current economic and political crises bedevilling the country, as former Zipra and Zanla combatants seek to close ranks and demand change from the regime.
ZPRA Veterans Association spokesperson, Robert Ndebele in a statement yesterday said: “As a matter of principle, we stand with them on constitutional issues, good governance, deteriorating economic and political situation.
“We feel that everybody, and not just war veterans, needs a sober and joint effort to resolve the issues confronting our motherland.”
Ndebele said, as war veterans, they had made a mistake of aligning the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association with Zanu PF over the years.
“The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association departed from its founding values and principles of being non-partisan and a welfare organisation and became an unprincipled arm of Zanu PF,” he said.
“As a result, it inevitably got entangled in Zanu PF’s factional fights that characterised Zanu in exile. We do not, as a matter of fact, wish to be dragged into those wars.”
Ndebele noted that, at one point, Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko, was asked “to shut up as the war veterans were trying to resolve Zanla/Zanu issues”.
“This created the impression that the association (Zimbabwe War Veterans Association) was not meant for ex-ZPRA cadres. We were not part of the Mgagao Declaration that made Robert Mugabe president of Zanu and will not comment on it,” Ndebele said.
“While we sympathise with, and in no way condone the victimisation, arrest, prosecution and persecution of (war veterans’ spokesperson Douglas) Mahiya and others, we must draw attention to the fact that in the 1980s, ZPRA commanders and ordinary cadres, some of whom were serving in the Zimbabwe National Army, were subjected to the same abuse and arrests on trumped up charges. At no time did any of our Zanla counterparts raise a finger in protest.
“However, we remain open to genuine dialogue on any platform for unity as we demonstrated during the liberation struggle, that anticolonial struggle.” newsday
7 Replies to “Ex-Zipra, Zanla War Veterans Close Ranks Against Zanu PF”
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Very correct. Mugabe is a Shona creation. Ndabaningi was a far much better human being than this vampire they call a President today. No wonder he was so quiet all those years. It was a tactic to hide his evilness so that people would not notice. That is what led to him being pushed forward as leader. A very cunning evil little man!!
This was the Shona rubbish that laid the roots for Shona Gukurahundism. This is what they are paying a very heavy price for today in this day and age. Suffer Shona!
Why are ZIPRA closing ranks with assholes?
The Mgagao Declaration (Oct 1975)
The shortened version of the Mgagao Declaration below must be understood in the context that it was written by young military officers at the main ZANLA training camp in Tanzania at the height of the liberation struggle in 1975. The language is strong and the views are blatant and uninhibited. But the declaration laid the foundation of two important historical events. It laid the basis for the removal of Rev Ndabaningi Sithole as leader of ZANU. It also laid the foundation for the elevation of Robert Mugabe as the leader of ZANU at a special congress at Chimoio two years later in 1977.
WE hereby express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for the efforts made by O.A.U Liberation Committee in the struggle to liberate Zimbabwe from the clutches of imperialism and fascism.
Without the support of the O.A.U Liberation Committee, the Tanzanian government and FRELIMO, the struggle to liberate Zimbabwe would not have developed to its present state.
We sincerely hope and are fully determined to reward these noble efforts by securing the liberation of Zimbabwe people so as to make our contribution to the African revolution.
In line with our sworn pledge to liberate Zimbabwe we hereby submit the following points for your consideration.
After a careful, deep and analytical study of the current situation in the Zimbabwe Liberation Movement in particular and the Zimbabwe revolution in general, we as the people who have vowed to sacrifice our very lives for the liberation of our fatherland, wish to make our feelings and standpoint unequivocally clear to you in the interest of the liberation of Zimbabwe.
1. We hereby state our unswerving and unequivocal commitment to the liberation of Zimbabwe through an arduous armed struggle.
Events and facts have clearly shown that any other course of action would be tantamount to an open betrayal of the Zimbabwean people.
We therefore strongly, unreservedly, categorically, and totally condemn any moves to continue talks with the Smith regime in whatever form.
We the freedom fighters will do the fighting and nobody under heaven has the power to deny us the right to die four our country.
We vowed to fight for our fatherland and the bloodshed in the struggle to liberate our fatherland is ours and strongly not anybody else’s.
1. We herby reaffirm our support for the Unity Accord signed on 7-12-74 by which the four organisations, ZANU, ZAPU, old ANC and FROLIZI were merged under the ANC.
We strongly register our support for national unity, but to us unity is not and end in itself, but means to an end.
Unity is not magic formula, but is one of the weapons in the struggle for liberation.
For Unity to be meaningful in Zimbabwe revolution; it should be based on an arduous and relentless armed struggle because any other course of action would make this same unit inimical to the Liberation of Zimbabwe.
We know of three forms of unity:
(a) Revolutionary
(b) Counter-Revolutionary Unity
(c) Reactionary Unity
Revolutionary Unity is for the purpose of promoting and accelerating the revolution.
In this strength of revolutionaries and we, as revolutionaries, stand for such unity.
Counter-Revolutionary Unity is for the purpose of arresting and setting brakes to the revolution.
It is a weapon in the service of reactionaries in their struggle and is aimed at stamping out flames of the people’s struggles.
This is the sort of unity advocated by Smith, Vorster and their allies.
We strongly condemn and will wage a relentless struggle against a form of unity.
Such Counter-Revolutionary Unity can be brought about by puppets and stooges of the reactionaries as a means of containing the revolution.
Reactionary Revolution Unity of the reactionaries themselves in the struggle for the perpetuation of their existence, their evil rule and the suppression of the broad masses of the people. We are totally opposed to it because it is a sworn enemy of the people.
In your efforts to strengthen the unity of the people of Zimbabwe, we strongly hope that you will take the three forms of unity into consideration and direct your efforts accordingly.
1. We wish to register our strong criticism over the way the ANC leadership has been exercising leadership over the revolution, these are namely:
(a) Bishop Abel Muzorewa
(b) Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole
(c) James Chikerema
These three have proved to be completely hopeless and ineffective as leaders of the Zimbabwe revolution.
Ever since the Unity Accord was signed on 7-12-74 these men have done nothing to promote the struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe, but on the other hand, they have done everything to hamper the struggle through their power struggle.
They have no interest of the revolution or the people at heart, but only their personal interests.
They cherish an insatiable lust for power.
(a) They have failed to produce a most general line which can form a basis for all theoretical and practical activities of the party.
(b) They have failed to produce machinery capable of processing and effecting the armed struggle.
(c) They have failed to make the necessary arrangements for four trained freedom fighters to and reinforce our fellow freedom fighters at the front during this painful period, so as to lighten their burden.
(d) They have failed to make arrangements for the thousands of recruits in Mozambique to undergo military training.
(e) They have failed to take any practical steps to meet the problems of our comrades in Zambia and Mozambique.
(f) They have
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You better wake up, you created your own dictator. We lost a lot of brothers and sisters fighting a similar dictator. That is why people say that what goes around comes around or that those who forget history are bound to repeat it. In our case, its utterly insane that the same generation has forgotten and repeated the same mistake to see themselves colonized by one of their own. We simply fought to change the actors and not the system. God forgive a people who do not even deserve to be a nation. We are a curse unto ourselves.