Mugabe blasts war vets, backs G40

via Mugabe blasts war vets, backs G40 – NewZimbabwe 12/12/2015

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe on Saturday appeared to be siding with Zanu PF’s mysterious G40 group fronted by his wife in comments aimed at “arrogant” war veterans who brag about their liberation war credentials in the party’s factional wars.

“The war wasn’t won by the gun alone,” President Mugabe said Saturday in remarks that would have been music to the ears of his wife Grace and her backers.

G40 refers to a group of so-called young Turks within Zanu PF which is said to be rooting for the First Lady Grace to succeed her 91-year-old husband.

Until quite recently, Grace has been under fire from hard line party elements aligned to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa for allegedly undermining war veterans.

Similarly, cabinet ministers Saviour Kasukuwere and Jonathan Moyo, both viewed as the driving force behind G40, have received threats of a ban from visiting the national hero’s acre for the same alleged offence.

But in his closing speech during the Zanu PF annual people’s conference in Victoria Falls Saturday, President Mugabe took the bossy war veterans down a peg, reminding them they were not more special than the rest.

“They should always recognise that they are like the other people, they have made sacrifices yes but they are not the only ones; some at home made sacrifices because they were arrested and killed,” he said.

During whirlwind provincial rallies she conducted recently, Grace, who was 15 when the war ended in 1980, has been at pains to plead her innocence, insisting she respected war veterans.

In one of her rallies, Grace said if she despised war veterans as was alleged by party rivals, she would have started by poisoning the “greatest” war veteran she cooks for in her home. She was referring to President Mugabe.

But in comments which could be interpreted to have been directed at war veterans minister Christopher Mutsvangwa, President Mugabe slated war veterans who are quick to crow about their education during internal clashes with party rivals.

“Chinotimba (Joseph) is practical, down to earth,” he said in reference to the Buhera South MP.

“…ehe Chinotimba haashori (does not grumble too much), simple person akaenda kuhondo (who fought the war) and missed out on his education and the people voted for him but I know of commanders who didn’t win.

“We are all proud that our people work together; of course tinevamwe vanotengesa pakati pedu (we have sell-outs in our midst).

“It’s not war veterans who are arrogant; we also have others with intellectual arrogance…I got my PhD, I am a lecturer and professor at the university…”

Meanwhile, President Mugabe urged errant party politicians to toe the party line or risk disciplinary action.

“Don’t be unnecessarily rude and harsh even a person who has committed an offence …,” President Mugabe said.

“Even though that person would have committed an offence, they should listen to what others are saying…this is a people’s party and your insolence will make things worse for you.”

Only quite recently, a handful party politicians including a former minister were expelled from the party for alleged indiscipline.