The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) has disowned Charles Ndawana, who has been representing the organisation at two meetings with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and civil society organisations (CSOs).
Source: War vets disown rowdy representative at Zec – NewsDay Zimbabwe December 14, 2016
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Ndawana, who has been accused of bullying other CSO members by using threatening language, presented himself at Zec as a ZNLWVA representative.
But ZNLWVA spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya disowned Ndawana, saying he was not a member of their association. Mahiya said war veterans had no dealings with Zec and were not a CSO.
“Ndawana is not a war veteran and his is not our member. He does not represent the interests of ZNLWVA. We are also not aware that Zec invited us to be part of the CSOs meeting. I did not even know that our organisation was a CSO and it is not registered anywhere as such,” he said.
ZNLWVA is a welfare association and is an affiliate of Zanu PF.
Ndawana told NewsDay he was a ZNLWVA provincial secretary for information, but Mahiya said this was not true.
“From what I hear, he is a war collaborator and not a war veteran. He cannot be part of our structures,” he said.
CSOs, in their second meeting with Zec last week, formed a steering committee chaired by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which will be responsible of setting up sub-committees that will shadow work by the electoral body’s work.
It is during the first meeting of this sub-committee that Ndawana is reported to have threatened other members of the group and forcibly elected himself vice-chairperson.
He listed his offices as Zanu PF district headquarters at Fourth Street and told the six-member committee that he neither had an email address nor WhatsApp, so they would have to visit his office.
Ndawana requested Zec to provide ZNLWVA with funding to enable the association to observe elections because it had no funding.
During the meeting, Ndawana constantly told other CSOs that he participated in the liberation war.
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