SURVIVING members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) High Command have admonished their colleagues in the Zanu PF-aligned Zimbabwe National War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) for seeking to prescribe a suitable candidate to succeed President Robert Mugabe.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
This comes as the ZNLWVA leadership has reportedly rallied behind Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and was subtly campaigning for him to succeed the 92-year-old Zanu PF leader.
“For a leader to lead the people of Zimbabwe, that leader should be chosen by the people of Zimbabwe and not by war veterans alone,” the Zipra High Command said in an article published in the State media over the weekend.
“It is an aberration by misguided persons that a leader of the country was chosen in a meeting of combatants in Mozambique.”
Mugabe last week publicly dressed down war veterans pushing for Mnangagwa to takeover from him, describing them as dissidents. Mnangagwa has publicly denied harbouring ambitions to succeed Mugabe and challenged his detractors to prove he was clandestinely campaigning for the top post.
Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko has also accused war veterans’ chairman and former minister Christopher Mutsvangwa, spokesperson Douglas Mahiya and secretary-general Victor Matemadanda of being Mnangagwa’s runner-boys.
The ex-Zipra combatants added: “Can someone please educate comrades Matemadanda, Mahiya and Mutsvangwa that we are no longer in Mozambique, but in an independent Zimbabwe and that we have been independent for 36 years. The people of Zimbabwe have been electing their own leaders for the last 36 years. They should not use the organisation to pursue personal political ambitions because this may cause divisions and despondency and arouse suspicions. We seek to advise those with political aspirations that they should pursue them not from within the war veterans association.”
