THURSDAY, 5PM:
The Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, father of the armed struggle against white rule in Zimbabwe, is the latest veteran of the liberation war to complain that the government is holding back on promised benefits.
Sithole, now 77, led the Zimbabwe African National Union in the early 1960s and 1970s. He said this week he had held back on claiming compensation, allowing “junior cadres” to get it first.
But now he’d applied for the package President Robert Mugabe beseiged by a campaign of violent demonstrations by former guerrilla fighters had promised to all veterans: a gratuity of ZD50 000 and a monthly pension of ZD2 000. He’s also asked for an extra ZD1-million to compensate him and his wife for loss of income after the government seized their farm three years ago.