via Generals | The Zimbabwean 9 September 2014
Barely a fortnight after a coup within the Sadc region, President Mugabe has extended the terms of the Generals of defence, police and prisons service. It is probably only in Zimbabwe where officers who are war veterans are permitted an extra 5 years of service. Rather than retiring at 60, the president’s strongmen will quit at 65, by which time another revision of the law will probably have been crafted to enable them to remain in office.
This special rule makes no sense. If one has been in combat since 1970s, surely one should be eager to take a deserved rest. Recently, police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri collapsed during a pass-out parade for cadets, raising questions about his fitness to remain in the position. He even admitted to stuffing extra clothes under his uniform – only he knows why.
The Defence Forces Service Commission can spin this in any way they please but this is obviously designed to ensure the President rests easily at night. Mugabe is running out of people to trust. Traditionally, the armed forces receive astronomic wage increases but with government struggling to pay salaries, there have been rumours of discontent among the ranks. His comrades in Zanu (PF) are overtly wrangling to succeed him, even before he has stepped down.
It is therefore more imperative now for Mugabe to stick with the ageing Generals who have always backed him. The security chiefs, in apparent reference to Morgan Tsvangirai, openly declared they would never salute a leader without liberation war credentials. Mugabe’s paranoia is the reason he refuses to allow reform of the security sector.
COMMENTS
They’ll all be soon swinging from lampposts anyway. The lot of them !!!!!!
those genrals are responsible for the murder of 30000 matabeles and the rape and plunder of DRC and the ongoing fear and terror in Zim if you are not Zanu pf–this is not a real army .
Mark Longhurst ….. You must have a farm that was taken by one the generals ….you choose not to talk about what your kith & kin did to us when the colonized us since 1896 . Shame on you !! Chimoi. Nyadzonia . Freedom Camp etc . You quickly forget and also the dissident menace in Matabeleland …. We will never forget and will do whatever we want with our country right or wrong & it’s our choice like we resoundingly did in July 2013 despite what you think or dream happened !!
Taizivei you say “we will do whatever we want with our country right or wrong”! What childish behaviour! So just to spite a few people you run a country into the ground and have absolutely no conscience or compassion for your fellow Zimbabweans. You quite clearly know you are doing wrong but simply don’t care! And I’m sure you justify your behaviour to yourself by calling it tit for tat! Oh boy! Poor Zimbabwe!
You ZPF idiot!
What do you know about any of the camps that were attacked in Mozambique and Zambia in those years. Nothing, no doubt, except the carbage you have been force fed. Another quess is that you were a small boy or not even born at the time. If my assertions are correct, you have no basis for the rubbish you sprout except perhaps you are on the last carriage of the ZANU PF gravy train.
Tazivei bootlicker the generals can defend themselves
No child soldiers…, 34 years of independence makes no war vet younger than 50 !! 60 year old general then he must have been 26 at the END of the liberation war( independence)
Mugabe is afraid even of his very own shadow.Kutya kwaPresident kwakabvira kare what kind of a person anofamba ari muambulance instead of sitting nicely in the benz yakatengwa nemari yedu.