OPPOSITION Zapu leader, Dumiso Dabengwa has challenged youths to stop running away from the economic and political challenges the country faces, but join the struggle to free themselves.
BY SILAS NKALA
Dabengwa made the remarks, while addressing Zipra war veterans in Jotsholo, Matabeleland North on Saturday.
He said Zimbabwe was experiencing racial, tribal and class polarisation.
“I salute the sacrifices of young people, both women and men, who did not shy away from injury and death in order to achieve national independence. The Zipra forces fought for our vision of a free society, but in this case this invincible force won the war and lost the peace because politics started the war and apportioned the spoils,” Dabengwa said.
“During the independence struggle, young people… some too young to fight, heard the clarion call of history and decided they were relevant to fight. I am appealing to those who are much younger than us to take their future into their own hands, not by running away from the economic and political crisis, but by joining the new struggle.”
He said areas like Jotsholo in Matabeleland North witnessed and took part in many phases of the struggle, as these supplied a steady stream of recruits, who later came back, as seasoned fighters and martyrs for freedom.
“The areas also became a theatre of war, where ordinary people of all ages were brutalised by the enemy for providing our forces key intelligence, food and other support. It is, therefore, not an exaggeration that ‘the people’ took up arms, and that Zipra represents the population in arms, literally,” Dabengwa said.
