‘Not much to celebrate for heroes’

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HUNDREDS of former liberation war fighters and families of fallen cadres have little to celebrate as the nation remembers its heroes.

HUNDREDS of former liberation war fighters and families of fallen cadres have little to celebrate as the nation remembers its heroes. Most of them are wallowing in abject poverty and suffer from neglect.

By PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI

Although President Robert Mugabe often uses the sacrifices made by liberation war fighters to justify his party’s continued stay in power, very few are enjoying the fruits of independence as Zanu PF increasingly appears clueless on how to resolve the economic logjam threatening to drive the majority of citizens deep into poverty.

Zanu PF has admitted that it is guilty of neglecting its own as scores of former liberation war fighters are living in penury and dying in abject poverty in mockery of the sterling roles they played during the liberation war.

Party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo told mourners during the burial of liberation war stalwart Washington Malianga in June this year that Zanu PF had an obligation to do more for its members.

“Zanu PF has failed and has not done much for people like Malianga who contributed so much to the liberation of our country. Most of these people who made huge sacrifices have since been forgotten because they chose private life over political office,” Gumbo said.

Malianga has a rich liberation war history, which includes being instrumental in the formation of the Dare reChimurenga/War Council and the National Democratic Party (NDP), Zapu and Zanu following the split in 1963, but he died a pauper.

According to the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform (ZLP), Zanu PF has betrayed the aspirations of those that fought for independence through ruinous economic policies and power wrangles that have stripped them of the moral authority to represent the people.

ZLP was formed by former liberation war fighters to advocate for peace, democracy and good governance.

“Zimbabwe is bleeding and the country is crying out for help and leadership. There is evidence of government failure at every level. The economy has collapsed thanks to populist, corrupt and bankrupt policies of Zanu PF. The much hyped look east policy has not yielded the hoped for results,” says ZLP Trust chairperson Happyson Nenji.

A war veteran in Odzi, Manicaland, recently said he had nothing to celebrate this year on Heroes Day although he was a beneficiary of the controversial land reform, a programme whose major highlight has been to reduce most formerly white-owned commercial farms into pieces of vast wastelands.

“Some top Zanu PF officials live in mansions, but I still live in a hut. While others drive 4x4s I use an old bicycle,” he said. “There are so many true war heroes out there who are not happy with Mugabe and Zanu PF. Some fake war veterans, who did not even participate in the struggle, are enjoying life and driving 4x4s while true heroes are languishing in poverty.”

He lamented the state of the economy which he said did not typify what his cadres paid the ultimate price for.

Families of most of the country’s liberation war heroes are languishing in extreme poverty, living on a meagre US$100 monthly Widows’ Pension Fund. Even as the country celebrates Heroes Day this year, most of them have nothing to show for the sacrifices made by their loved ones during the liberation struggle.

Widow of the late decorated former deputy commander of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) General Lookout Masuku, told our sister paper The Southern Eye recently that despite having raised their concerns with the relevant authorities, their misfortunes have continued to pile up.

“I have said a lot about our plight. Last year I said a lot about problems that we are facing as widows and now I am giving other widows a chance to echo their discontent,” said Gift Masuku.

In 2010, the widow of revered national liberation icon Josiah Tongogara, Angeline, approached then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for assistance, saying she and her five children were struggling to make ends meet and wanted the government to throw them a lifeline.

Mabvuku-Tafara legislator James Maridadi recently told Parliament that the welfare of war veterans and their families was a thorny and emotive issue.

He said during his time as a broadcaster, during which time the War Victims Compensation Fund was being disbursed, he came across a liberation war fighter who intimated to him that he had never received anything despite his participation in the war.

“Although he had sustained injuries during the war, he had not received compensation or gratuity. Mr Speaker, I took that matter on radio and discussed it at length and I became so intimately involved with the issue of war veterans,” Maridadi said.

“I received a call from a widow of a war veteran who lies buried at the Heroes Acre, [Debra Cele], who lives in my constituency and she does not have a house to live in. She is not only a widow of a war veteran but of a national hero. She does not have a house to live in.”

Debra is the widow of Cephas Cele who died of diabetes at his home in Bulawayo on July 7 2000 and was buried at the National Heroes Acre.

Maridadi bemoaned lack of mechanisms to ensure that the orphans and widows of heroes were taken care of.

War Veterans’ Affairs officials in the Ministry of Defence, Retired Major General Richard Ruwodo, told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs in 2012 that the families of war heroes who died before 1997 were not entitled to get any assistance because their spouses were not physically present to prove their role in the war of liberation.

“Our (War Veterans) Act has discrepancies in that it does not recognise war veterans who died prior to 1997 before vetting took place and it means national heroes like Tongogara are not catered for,” he said.

A clip often played on ZBC television shows Tongogara explaining that the liberation war was not about changing the skin colour of the leadership but changing a racial system of governance.

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