via Real war veterans reduced to helpless spectators | SW Radio Africa by Tanonoka Joseph Whande 20 January 2014
I wonder if Zimbabwe will ever make a worse mockery of itself to beat taking Joseph Chinotimba seriously enough to actually swear him into parliament. This is the most disgusting thing ever to happen in our parliament.
Now the illiterate charlatan, who never fought in the war, is making foolish demands on behalf of what he called war veterans. He and some other unelected fools in parliament want a ministry of their own as if they did anything for Zimbabwe.
They are asking for a stand-alone ministry, which would cost us millions to establish and run, just so that they can have a center from which to direct their unruly behaviour. They want offices from which they will be paid for destroying the country.
But first, I must mourn the silence of the real war veterans who have always quietly stood by the sidelines and watched fake war veterans, like Chinotimba and Jabulani Sibanda, who never fought in the war, champion Mugabe’s causes through extortion, blackmail, murder and vice.
From the type of people we have been exposed to claiming to be war veterans, I am not convinced that the nation of Zimbabwe owes these thugs and murderers anything.
The war of which they claim to be veterans of was fought to bring protection, freedom and independence to the people – none of which has been delivered.
This group of murderers and extortionists has brought us more misery than we had before their arrival.
I concede that the intention was noble; I accept there was need to pick up the gun and bring independence, freedom and justice to our nation.
I accept that we needed to run our own country as we saw fit. To that end, our children flocked to join the war effort to liberate our country for very noble reasons.
What burns my heart though is that the aims of the revolution were discarded immediately after ZANU-PF came to power.
Suddenly, we found out that we were better off with the colonial oppressors than under our own African leaders.
Even the side-lining of the real war veterans is a clear indication of how the revolution was lost after it had been won.
So, who are these people who are being allowed to terrorise, murder, extort and blackmail the people of Zimbabwe? Who is behind them and why?
These are the very same people who were given demobilisation moneys and failed to use the money wisely. Do not talk to me about the money having been too little. We all work hard for little.
These are the same people who, we are told, forced the government to give them lump sums of money and Mugabe, foolish as he is and facing declining popularity at that time, acquiesced and gave each one of them thousands and thousands of dollars the nation could not afford.
That marked the decline and eventual collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar.
To this day, the nation has never recovered from that careless hand-out of money to undeserving people.
They kept making louder and louder noises, with encouragement from the old dictator who had now seen that people did not want him anymore. Mugabe abandoned any pretence of decent rule and used some of these hungry people, turning them into thugs to silence the people.
Mugabe created for them a department within the Ministry of Defence. Money was looted to smithereens by those same people who were supposed to benefit from it.
After receiving the money, they went on a rampage, buying watches for their goats and cabbages for their cattle.
Now, they are back again and they want a ministry of their own. They want their thuggery legitimised.
No, there should not be such a Ministry. The Department of Social Services can handle the real war veterans, none of whom should be below age 48 if we accept that one joined the struggle at twelve years, three years before independence in 1980.
My heart bleeds for the real war veterans who are themselves victims of Mugabe’s thugs who masquerade as war veterans.
My understanding of this scenario is that the real war veterans, those who participated and saw actual combat do not wish to see any conflict or war in Zimbabwe again because their experiences were extremely painful, physically, mentally and psychologically – not to mention the physical scars they still carry around.
These buffoons, Chinotimba and Sibanda, want money.
If they cared about war veterans, if they knew what war does to someone and if they had seen real war, they would not be asking for money.
They would be asking for something that could actually help war veterans, in real terms.
If Mugabe himself cared about war veterans, why is that today, 34 years after so-called independence, there is still not a single Veterans Memorial Hospital where these people could be afforded specialised treatment peculiar to their injuries, along with psychological and mental treatment?
The money that was lost by disbursing it to unworthy fake veterans could have been used to assist those who actually saw combat and received permanent emotional scars.
But, they are not war veterans.
They have been demanding money since way back when and they were paid and as soon as they accepted payment, they ceased to be liberators but became mercenaries in their own country.
Since they accepted payment, they are not our veterans but might be whatever they are to those who paid them.
The liberation of Zimbabwe was not by ZANU-PF or PF-ZAPU fighters alone. The villagers carried the brunt of the war.
The villagers would also need to be compensated for their losses and participation as well.
But why should anyone be paid for liberating their own country?
The real war veterans fought for freedom of the people; they fought for people to be free to decide what they wanted. The war was not fought so that other people would impose their will on others like we see today.
The heart of the matter is that real war veterans would have kept an eye on Mugabe and ZANU-PF to ensure that they uphold the intended goals of the liberation war; that Mugabe gave the people the freedom they so many sacrificed for.
They would not be beggars and extortionists who turn on their own innocent brothers and sisters but, instead, ensure that the flame of the revolution is keenly guarded for the benefit of all citizens.
Now these thugs masquerading as war veterans have stolen our lives. They have destroyed our country. They have killed our people and continue to do so.
They are blackmailing us as if we sent them to do what they did.
Because of them, we cannot enjoy our freedom, our independence and our country for which the ordinary Zimbabweans sacrificed so much.
Mugabe enlisted these fake war veterans to steal from the people, to kill our people, to rape and abuse our nation and to make room for thievery and vice that ZANU-PF is undertaking in Zimbabwe.
Yet, amongst us the real war veterans mingle silently because they too are victims of a good process they started in good faith but which has now been hijacked. They watch helplessly as their ultimate efforts are soiled. They have been robbed of their sacrifices, of their dignity and of their country. Their dreams lie in ruins as fake war veterans benefit at their expense.
I wish the real war veterans would come forward and save the nation from Mugabe and his thugs who are soiling the name of those who sacrificed so much for the liberation of our country.
Pasi na Robert Mugabe.
Pasi neZANU-PF.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Monday, January 20th, 2014.
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