Andrew Meldrum in Harare
ZIMBABWEAN Cabinet members are accused of looting a huge fund meant to compensate independence war veterans, a scandal that has come to a head just as the country marks its 17th anniversary of independence.
Many Cabinet ministers, MPs and others closely connected to President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, have claimed more than half the 22,5-million war veterans compensation fund, according to allegations in Parliament and reports in the independent press.
The government has drafted a bill to create another fund, this one to pay political detainees from the Rhodesian era. It is widely seen as another slush fund to reward those close to the ruling party.
“We should be celebrating our independence and the end of white minority rule, but our people are asking themselves why our leaders are enriching themselves shamelessly while most of the real war veterans are living in abject poverty,” said Margaret Dongo, an independent MP who fought in the 1970s war to end white rule in what was then Rhodesia. “This is Zimbabwe’s worst scandal,” she said.
Dongo, one of three independent MPs in the 150-seat Parliament, called for an audit of the veterans’ fund, but her move was quashed by Zanu-PF loyalists. She managed to enter in the record a list of 46 senior government figures who she said had received large payments from the fund. She alleged that Cabinet ministers and President Mugabe’s brother-in-law had each received payments of Z$850000 (R327 343).
“There are so many Cabinet members, army officers and police officers who are claiming funds for serious disabilities, it is a wonder the government can function at all,” Dongo told Parliament this week.
The government has announced that it will investigate disbursements, but has declined to list recipients of payments from the fund.
So widespread is disgust at the alleged misuse of the veterans’ fund that the government’s Herald newspaper dealt with the scandal on the front page of its independence edition yesterday. It said more than 70000 people had applied for funds, although only 35000 fighters against Rhodesian rule were registered at independence in 1980.
Some of those who applied for compensation were 23-years-old, which would have made them six years old at independence.
The social services minister, Florence Chitauro, who is responsible for administering the fund, admitted she did not know who had received payments.
The scandal has divided the ruling party. Irene Zindi, MP, another war veteran, alleged in Parliament that the main beneficiaries of the fund were “comrades who were having a good time in Europe and the Americas”.
“The real people who lost limbs, suffered in silence and fought for this country have not received a penny.”
The leading weekly newspaper, the Zimbabwe Independent, declared: “Yesterday’s heroes become tomorrow’s villains.” In its editorial the paper said: “The personal interests of the political ruling class have come to stand between promises made at independence and the wishes of the people.”
The veterans’ fund is the biggest scandal of several preoccupying Zimbabwe.
The government has for two years frustrated attempts by the country’s most successful black businessman, Strive Masiyiwa, to set up a cellular phone network. Recently it awarded the licence to an American firm represented by a group of Zanu-PF supporters including the president’s nephew, Leo Mugabe.
The R363-million contract to build a new international airport in Harare went to a little-known Cypriot firm, also represented by Leo Mugabe.
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