Arrest Grace: War vets

Source: Arrest Grace: War vets – DailyNews Live

Fungi Kwaramba  31 July 2017

HARARE – War veterans have threatened to take the law into their hands if
police do not arrest First Lady Grace Mugabe who last called on President
Robert Mugabe to name a successor.

The angry former freedom fighters under the banner Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) said they would storm the
Zanu PF headquarters if their preferred candidate does not become the
ruling party’s next leader.

Speaking at a hastily-arranged press conference after Mugabe’s stern
warning to the military top brass to stop meddling in politics and Grace’s
clarion call for her husband to name a successor, the ZNLWVA
secretary-general Victor Matemadanda said they will not allow a monarchy
to be established in the country.

Apparently, incensed by the fact that they were locked up last year after
they had demanded for Mugabe’s resignation and his replacement with Vice
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the ZNLWVA said that the Zanu PF leader has
no monopoly to determine the country’s future.

“Sometime last year, many people including ourselves here were expelled
from Zanu PF having as many labels as they can be. We were accused of
having wanted someone to succeed the president. But what we had done was
to tell the people our armed struggle revolutionary structure, what we
agreed to be the structure of the revolution but the same offence was
repeated by Tshinga Dube and they were demonstrations in Harare and
Bulawayo that he must be fired because he had said the president must
appoint a successor.

“The same offence is now in State House, the first lady has committed the
same offence from an unknown base unlike ourselves because we have a
stake, but the only stake the first lady has is being married to the
president.

“We have been waiting to hear that dockets have been opened and that riot
police have gone to the State House to arrest a person who has committed a
crime that we committed and that we were arrested for.

“If the application of the law is uniform, one or two scenarios should
happen, one that the first lady is arrested or the expulsions and
suspensions that were done on the youths chairpersons and ourselves are
null and void. The suspended youths should go and lead their provinces and
I and other comrades should be the in the next central committee meeting,”
said Matemadanda.

Raising the spectre of bloodshed, something that political experts have
warned of if Mnangagwa does not succeed Mugabe, Matemadanda said gone are
the days when Mugabe used to solely determine what direction the country
has to follow.

“The first lady should stop dreaming, the final say on Zimbabwe does not
come from her husband. His word is not final that is what we used to say
it can’t. People will vote for their candidate. If Grace is not dealt with
accordingly we will storm the party and they would rather kill us, we are
going to fix things in Zanu PF. We have reached the point of no return,”
said Matemadanda.