War vets fume over Muzenda ‘lie’

Source: War vets fume over Muzenda ‘lie’ – DailyNews Live

Andrew Kunambura      29 August 2017

HARARE – War veterans yesterday accused President Robert Mugabe of
“re-writing” history after the 93-year-old stunned Zanu PF supporters on
Saturday when he suggested that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa had bad
relations with his late predecessor, Simon Muzenda.

Mugabe told mourners at the National Heroes Acre, where he was officiating
at the burial of Muzenda’s widow, Moudy, that Mnangagwa had driven his
late deputy out of Midlands back to his home province of Masvingo.

“Muzenda came to me saying the guys from Midlands are chasing us and I
asked who in particular? And he said Emmerson and his team,” Mugabe told
mourners.

Mnangagwa is the most senior Zanu PF leader in the Midlands province and
also enjoys massive support in Zanu PF structures in Masvingo province in
his alleged quest to become Zimbabwe’s next president.

Mugabe’s remarks were, however, strongly rebuffed by Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) secretary-general, Victor
Matemadanda, a self-confessed Mnangagwa supporter.

“He is a master in division. Why would he talk about it only just now if
it happened at all? VaMuzenda bade us farewell, he never said he was
hounded out of the province. The old man wants to divide the Karanga
people.

“I’m sorry to talk tribal for the first time in my life. We will not allow
one person to divide us, to divide Zimbabwe. He has benefited from the
diverse vote for many years and wants to create tribal trouble when he’s
reached his final station,” charged Matemadanda who also hails from the
Midlands province.

“Zimbabwe is not and will never at any time become a country for one tribe
it is for us all.

“Everyone will remember that the same Mugabe once addressed people saying,
he was not happy that Muzenda had decided to go to his home province in
his last days. Why would he want to put everything bad on Mnangagwa?

“Mr President, ED (Mnangagwa’s initials) is a comrade I know better than
you. He fought in the war as a trained soldier. He has served you, not me,
bravely, consistently and persistently. Why should he be treated worse
than the two disasters in your Cabinet,” added Matemadanda.

“Attention will never be swayed from the current mess that the economy is
in; high levels of corruption and interference in the administration of
justice by pronouncing verdicts that should come from courts at political
rallies. The people of Masvingo, Midlands and indeed all other provinces
of Zimbabwe will never stoop so low as to be divided easily,” said
Matemadanda.

Muzenda moved to the Midlands town of Umvuma in 1955 and started his own
carpentry business.

He also stayed active in political activism there before moving to Gweru
where his activism earned him the position of Zanu deputy organising
secretary at the party’s inaugural elective congress in May 1964.

He only relocated to Masvingo in the late 1990s and viciously fought with
fellow nationalist Edson Zvobgo for the control of the province until his
death on September 20, 2003.

Mugabe’s speech appears to have inflamed tempers among ruling party
members in the volatile province ahead of his youth interface rally to be
held in Gweru on Friday.

“That was great disrespect for ED. Remember that unlike what the president
said, Muzenda was protected by ED.

“Remember (the late opposition party leader Patrick) Kombayi was shot and
seriously wounded by State security agents because he wanted to wrest the
Gweru parliamentary seat from Muzenda. So how can the same man who
protected him also be the one that drove him out of the province?” one
Zanu PF central committee member told the Daily News yesterday.