The root cause of President Robert Mugabe’s legendary leadership failure is his inability to separate issues of the State and those of the party.
THE STANDARD COMMENT
Mugabe has had a penchant for misusing State resources to bankroll Zanu PF activities and even for his birthday parties that are held every year at a huge cost to the fiscus. The abuse has gone for so long that some now believe that Zanu PF is entitled to use State resources to finance its meetings, as was the case last week when Mugabe summoned war veterans to a crisis indaba in Harare.
Mugabe wanted to meet the former liberation war fighters because of the discontent that has been simmering over the direction the ruling party has been taking since First Lady Grace Mugabe burst into the political scene in 2014.
Grace has targeted particularly war veterans in her bid to entrench her G40 faction as she prepares for Mugabe’s inevitable departure from the political scene.
The war veterans are unsettled by the endless purges that have characterised Zanu PF since Mugabe claimed to have uncovered a bizarre plot to unseat him, which he said was led by former vice-president Joice Mujuru.
Zanu PF’s power struggles were essentially the reason the 10 000 war veterans from all over the country gathered in Harare on Wednesday and the issues of welfare were only on the periphery.
However, the former fighters knowing Mugabe’s greatest weakness of being power-hungry, took advantage of the meeting to make a long list of demands that they want Zimbabwe’s long-suffering taxpayers to meet.
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They demanded an upward review of their pensions, access to treatment outside the country, mines, stakes in foreign-owned companies, land and top government positions, among a litany of favours.
These are the same war veterans who were given demobilisation payouts soon after independence, hefty cash payments in 1997 and continue to receive monthly pensions as well as school fees for their children.
War veterans were also used by Zanu PF to invade commercial farms at the turn of the millenium, precipitating the collapse of the economy.
Therefore, it is intriguing that war veterans still believe that they should continue making fresh compensation demands 36 years after independence.
It is not the fault of taxpayers that war veterans have been failing to take advantage of opportunities availed to them since independence to sustain their lives.
The former fighters were given pieces of prime land but most of them are failing to be productive because of the dependency syndrome that has been entrenched in them since their demobilisation.
Mugabe encourages the sense of entitlement that now seems to be so pervasive among the rank and file of the former fighters because he needs them each time his power is under threat.
The meeting on Wednesday was far from being representative because former Zipra cadres long disassociated themselves from the predatory Zanu PF elite who want to monopolise the liberation war legacy.
Illustrious former fighters such as Dumiso Dabengwa and Joice Mujuru were excluded from the meeting because they differ with Mugabe on the direction he is taking the country. Mugabe made promises to the war veterans and he is likely to fulfil them because he wants to hang on to power until he dies.
But a clear message should be sent to the former fighters, that they should not hold the nation to ransom.
As much as we are grateful for their heroic role in the liberation struggle, we cannot accept their ever-mounting demands.
