The mention of the words war veterans conjures up images of large groups of men marching through the city streets in demand of war pensions, or stick wielding groups of people trying to accelerate the country’s land reform programme by camping outside white-owned farms up for compulsory acquisition.
Led by the late Chenjerai Hunzvi, a controversial Polish-trained medical doctor, the war veterans had become such a powerful force that President Robert Mugabe took them on board.
However, 12 years after its formation and almost two years after the death of Hunzvi, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWA)is in a state of disintegration and in danger of being replaced by the newly trained youth militia.
”The war veterans movement will never be the same without Hunzvi. It is only a question of time before the former freedom fighters become a spent force,” said John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.
The cracks began to emerge earlier this year among a group of Bulawayo-based ex-combatants. Former fighters from the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra), which was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) that merged with the ruling Zanu-PF in 1987, called on their colleagues to pull out of the ruling party.
This followed clashes between the Bulawayo provincial chairman of the war veterans association, Jabulani Sibanda, and senior Zanu-PF officials. The Bulawayo branch accused party officials and senior staff at the government-controlled Grain Marketing Board, which has a monopoly on maize distribution, of corruption in the distribution of maize, and backed a volatile demonstration by the city’s residents outside one of the depots.
Max Mkandla, the former Zipra representative was quoted in a privately owned daily newspaper as saying that Zanu-PF was using the war veterans for selfish gains and alleged that the ruling party had sidelined the people of Matabeleland during the land redistribution exercise.
”Former Zipra fighters should stop preaching Zanu-PF politics because it does not benefit them at the end of the day,” Mkandla said.
However, in a sign of splits within the organisation, ZNLWVA acting chairman, Patrick Nyaruwata, dismissed Mkandla’s call for a breakaway saying: ”Who is Mkandla anyway? Is he not just one of those misplaced elements being used to promote the interests of the enemy? While different views are permitted within our movement, we shall not hesitate to deal with divisive people masquerading as war veterans.”
Andy Mhlanga, ZNLWVA secretary, said war veterans had not been allocated the 20 of the total land taken by the state during the land reform exercise as had been promised by government.
He said that some former combatants who had occupied white-owned farms from 2000, when the land reform programme began, were evicted from the farms and now had nowhere else to go. He also claimed that top government officials had allocated multiple farms for themselves at the expense of the intended beneficiaries.
The election planned in February to choose a new leadership for ZNLWVA might also rock the organisation, analysts say. Since Hunzvi’s death from suspected cerebral malaria in May 2001, elections have been postponed on several occasions due to the threat of divisions.
Mugabe, who is the association’s patron, is reported to have directed that the elections be delayed until after his presidential election, fearing a split in the vote.
This generated a war of words between Andrew Ndlovu, who was projects secretary, firebrand Joseph Chinotimba and Nyaruwata.
Chinotimba, who is the chief inspector in the Harare Municipal police section and vice president of the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, and Ndlovu, wanted the elections to go ahead. But Nyaruwata, a moderate seen by many as Mugabe’s close supporter, fought for the elections to be postponed.
The ZNLWVA suffered a setback when some of its members broke away two years ago to form the Zimbabwe Liberation Platform (ZLP). The breakaway was reportedly caused by growing disillusionment among by some members who were worried by the violence and alleged killings perpetrated by the ZNLWVA. The ZLP have since managed to win the support of civil society, Makumbe observed.
Lobbying ahead of next month’s election both Chinotimbe and Nyaruwata claim to be the popular choice.
However, analysts say their support base may be eroded by the training of militias at state-run youth service centres countrywide, as a ploy by Mugabe to replace the war veterans and ensure Zanu-PF’s continued grip on power.
In 2000 the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation started a national youth training programme that has churned out militant graduates who are allegedly being used to terrorise opposition party supporters.
Shakespeare Maya, leader of the National Alliance for Good Governance (Nagg), an emerging political party, said the creation of ”Green Bombers” was a deliberate move to cancel the influence of the war veterans and eventually replace them.
He said the militias were already proving to be an asset to Zanu-PF because of their youth, energy and zeal and appeared to able to be present wherever the ruling party needed them.
This was particularly worrying in the light of recent reports that the militia had been seen supervising maize sales amid allegations that supporters of Zanu-PF have been getting preferential treatment of the grain which is in short supply.
Over seven million Zimbabweans now need food aid due to economic problems, droughts and a disruption in farming due to the land reform programme. – Irin