via War vets demand medals – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 1, 2016
WAR veterans should unite under the Zanu PF-led government and demand war medals for their participation in the liberation struggle, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) secretary-general Victor Matemadanda has said.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Matemadanda told NewsDay yesterday that the medals would not be extended to ex-combatants in the opposition camp, arguing this was why there was need for unity among war veterans and for them to support the current government.
“The government must award those medals, but at the same time, we must acknowledge that no government will award a war medal to a person in the opposition. That cannot happen. The war veterans must unite and support the government,” Matemadanda said.
The call comes at a time some ex-Zipra combatants have threatened to sever ties with the ZNLWVA to form their own welfare organisation
Opposition Zapu spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa last week claimed that former Zipra cadres had cut ties with the Mutsvangwa-led ZNLWVA, accusing the latter of being engrossed in Zanu PF factional fights.
Matemadanda declined to comment over the alleged split and blamed disunity among ex-combatants for contributing to their lack of recognition by the government.
“The government has been awarding such medals at almost every Heroes’ Day and sometime Independence Day functions, but what has been lacking is the co-ordination to say who should get which medal and so forth,” he said.
“Maybe what we should do as war veterans is to get united first and then we identify who played what role and who deserves which medal. We should work on our database. The medals must be awarded, but we must get organised first as war veterans.”
Retired Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane and Retired Colonel Buster Magwizi, in a statement on behalf of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) High Command on Sunday, said the State must award war medals to all ex-combatants.
The former Zipra leaders said war veterans had nothing to show for their participation in the armed struggle, adding this had turned them “into strangers at Independence and Heroes’ Day functions”.
“They watch the spectacle of some people who did not bother to lift a finger for the liberation of the nation, including those who fought against our liberation struggle, wine and dine at the top table from afar,” Magwizi and Mazinyane said in a joint statement.
“They do not have anything to relate them to the liberation struggle. What we ask for is the (War Veterans) minister (Christopher Mutsvangwa) to fight for the recognition of these patriotic sons and daughters of Zimbabwe.”
COMMENTS
This is pathetic, some war veterans amuse me, only last week they were beaten and harassed by the Police and they continue to worship Mugabe while still licking the wounds for merely wanting to have meeting to be addressed by their leadership.
I think such war veterans should come in the open that they were not fighting to free the country from oppression but for Mugabe and they do not have any brains of their own but Mugabe’s ‘automatons’, what a shame cde Matendadanda. You are just exposing your self to ridicule while Grace continues to laugh at you and I this k you deserve such ill-treatment.
“…and demand war medals for their participation in the liberation struggle”. This is stupid to say it mildly. You people never learn, do you. Demand, demand, demand. That is all you know. People no longer have any respect for the few surviving real war veterans because of this kind of mind. You created this government and you were used with your eyes wide open. now you discover you were made fools of, motatarika muchivuya kuvanhu vamairova nokuvuraya in Mugabe’s name. You can go hang!
These are brain-dead war vets if indeed they went to war.They fought for one family,they fought to destroy Zimbabwe.They don’t even know what did they fought for.In nutshell,they are stupid bunch of losers,scumbags who continue to worship their patron.
If I was a starving “wovit ” I would be asking for a pot of Sadza not a medal. Just saying
yes let give you medals, for the morons of the century, once a thriving country brought to its knees by these stupid people who thought that if they took the white mans farms the maize would just grow by itself, the wheat would just raise out of the ground every season to be harvested, but wait who would harvest it as they are too stupid and lazy to do any work. Hope Mugarbage beats you a bit more, you deserve it.
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Why not? I am sure that China could knock out a couple of hundred colourful medals, that’s all that would be needed to supply all the surviving genuine combatants.
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