Source: Not under my watch: Chiwenga | The Herald May 2, 2017
Mabasa Sasa Sunday Mail Editor
Zimbabwe’s security services will not stand by while rogue elements belittle their Commander-in-Chief, warning that dissent from quarters that should know better will not be tolerated.
In an interview with The Herald and Sunday Mail yesterday, Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Chiwenga said many of the people making political noises today were either utterly misguided, had a history of treachery or were Johnnies-come-lately to the struggle.
This follows a stream of commentary in the private media from one war veterans grouping which is trying to create the impression that the majority of liberation fighters — who are a Reserve Force — have lost faith in their Commander-in-Chief.
Highlights . . .
- First time ZDF pronounces self on rogue war vets.
- Gen Chiwenga speaks as ZDF Commander, and senior surviving Commander of Second Chimurenga.
- Distinguishes between war vets association and generality of war veterans.
- Urges war vets leadership to be role models.
- Advises them to respect party and Government leadership.
- Counsels rogue elements to see error of their ways and repent.
- ZDF sworn to defend Commander-in-Chief.
The general’s sentiments also come on the back of claims by some politicians within Zanu-PF that they are the President’s number one backers, yet they had a well-documented history of treachery.
Gen Chiwenga said: “The majority of war veterans have nothing to do with this nonsense that we are now getting daily in our media.
“The ones who are now championing themselves as the war veterans are members of an association which emanates from way back in the time of (Cde Chenjerai) Hunzvi.”
Gen Chiwenga said people like Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) spokesperson Mr Douglas Mahiya must appreciate that they were fronting an NGO and not the majority of ex-combatants.
“I am talking on behalf of the Defence and Security Services of the country; and besides that, on the Zanla side, I am the surviving most senior commander. And I am not in the association.
“But when they go out there they talk as war veterans. They must talk as a war veterans association. But who are these people? What were they during the struggle that makes them think that they are now more revolutionary than Zanla and Zipra at the height of war? What role did they play?
“If they understood the political teachings — that the party commands the gun and not vice versa, that everyone must respect the leadership — they should know that today in Independent Zimbabwe we must all respect the leadership both in Government and in the party.”
He said such “unbecoming behaviour shows that they (ZNLWVA leadership) were never cooked properly and they never understood what they stood for and what the revolution was all about”.
“Apa ndipo patinoti ava vana ava vagara pfumo vachida kuridza ngoma nedemo — hapana chinofamba. Pfumo harigarike, ngoma hairidzwe nedemo. Vazvizive kubva nhasi izvozvo, kuti hazviitwi,” he added.
Gen Chiwenga said anyone with a grievance should follow the correct channels to air their views, and already such opportunity had been presented by President Mugabe to all war veterans — and not just a single association — when he invited them to last year’s historic indaba.
“This must now stop . . . If they want to remain as part and parcel of those disciplined, loyal, patriotic cadres, they must now understand that it is the party, it is the Government that sets the direction.
“The party commands the combatants and not vice versa. Hakuna mwana akagara nhaka, kana kutora tsvimbo dzababa, ivo baba vachiripo.
“Ndino dzokorora zvekare, ukadaro uri kugarira pfumo uchida kuridza ngoma. Handizvo?” he counselled.
Gen Chiwenga dismissed claims that he should not intervene in such matters, asserting that his history as a liberation fighter, and his status as the Commander of the ZDF and a citizen gave him the right to defend his Commander-in-Chief and safeguard Zimbabwe’s stability.
“Here we are talking about how people, more specifically combatants, must behave. They are supposed to be role models to the rest of society.”
He said there was still opportunity for those who had gone astray to clean up their act and stand on principle.
“But speaking on behalf of the Defence and Security Services of the country, this nonsense must now come to an end. We will not have our Commander-in-Chief being belittled by nobodies, who never commanded any battle … Ngatiregei kudaro,” he said.
He said President Mugabe had shown over the decades that he was a man of principle, and the rest of the body politic and the populace would do itself good if it learnt this valuable lesson from him.
“Nevamwe zvino vakuzviti vanoziva, tafunda sitereki, tava ma professor — vakatiza hondo iyi. Nhasi ikozvino izvi they now know,” he said.
COMMENTS
MA professor KKK .What role did they play in the liberation struggle? Lets respect our leaders as such leaders come from God. Romans 13.Nyika yedu Yababa ZIIMBAWEEE.Lets not belittle or scold our leaders or his Vice Presidents ,Chikara and Mpoko.
SIYAZWANA VANTU VAKHITI
Yaa, Jonathan Moyo wakatiza Hondo – imbwende kana kutoti mutengesi chaiye. Ikozvino kungwarangwara nhema – achitoba zvake mari dzehurumende (VaMugabe vakangokotsira zvavo) nekufurira vanaKasukuwere kuita zvemadhokonono. On this one Chiwenga is right.
But on the issue of threatening and trying to silence other war vets who are expressing the open truth regarding Mugabe’s failed leadership, corruption, personalization of the country and zanu pf party, etc, Chiwenga is totally wrong. Of course, Chiwenga is very much part of corrupt cabal hence any attack on the levers of corruption and theft is an attack him too. Anyway, Chiwenga only needs to remember that he might only succeed in threatening or even shooting the messenger, but not killing the message. So, threatening Victor and others is not the answer. In fact, the answer is for Chiwenga and the rest of the cabal is to get back their conscience and reflect on the values of the liberation war vis-à-vis what is prevailing in Zim now. nxaaaaaaaaa!
We must respect our leaders, hungry or not, jobs or no jobs, bad roads or no roads at all, no drinking water, no electricity. I can go on and on. why is it that our leaders have no respect for us after voting them into office in the past 36 years? Please give some logic.
“Hakuna mwana akagara nhaka, kana kutora tsvimbo dzababa, ivo baba vachiripo”. This says it all. If our top general does not realise that the Present is the Chief Servant of the country not the Father then we are still several generations behind the rest of the world. We might put on suits and handle sophisticated weaponry but we still live by the mindset of a stone age hunter. If we still talk of a struggle when the “enemy” has since become our own sons and daughters then we are nothing more than political dinosaurs. Surely, Cde Chiwenga did not go to the war so that one man and one man alone rules till he dies. The people’s cry is not for a king but for a young vibrant leadership that can steer the country away from the trials and tribulations of the modern era. As the general is so fond of Shona idioms, why not reflect on “matakadya kare haanyaradzi mwana”. The war was fought, thank you very much. Now we need food and functioning systems. For this kind of war our leaders have proven to be ill equipped. Telling them so surely cannot be treason.
The war vets are not the majority in the country so if going to war against white minority regime can give people like Chiwenga title deed of the country to rule the majority of people who never went to war ,as they went to war Fed up to be ruled by the minority now ovets are the minority but ruling the majority that’s oppression chinenge
RUBBISH NIGHT SCHOOL EDUCATED SOLDIERS!
There you have it a general declaring not that he is a supporter but a member of a political party. What nonsense is this? Some 1 tell the general to stick to his business and let the politicians do theirs.
“He said President Mugabe had shown over the decades that he was a man of principle”
I must have missed that part