Mugabe’s epic fallout with war vets

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President Robert Mugabe probably owes his survival since the turn of the millennium to Zimbabwe’s militant former liberation war fighters whom he routinely rewards with various favours including money and land for mobilising voters during tough elections.

President Robert Mugabe probably owes his survival since the turn of the millennium to Zimbabwe’s militant former liberation war fighters whom he routinely rewards with various favours including money and land for mobilising voters during tough elections.

By Everson Mushava

Beginning with the watershed 2000 elections, the war veterans became the 92-year-old leader’s storm troopers as he grew unpopular and became a hard sell to a population hit by unprecedented economic meltdown.

However, as the battle to succeed the ageing Mugabe intensified this year, the war veterans became impatient with his reluctance to anoint their preferred candidate, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa as his successor.

The tensions simmered for months until the former fighters decided they could not take any more.

On Thursday last week, about 500 members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) met in Harare and announced that they were withdrawing their support for Mugabe.

The veterans called their long-time patron and commander a dictator. Mugabe was also accused of corruption, economic mismanagement and brutally clamping down on dissent, contrary to the ideals of the liberation war.

Analysts were unanimous that the statement by the war veterans marked a turning point in their relationship with one of the world’s oldest leaders.

United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean lawyer Alex Magaisa said although Mugabe was increasing relying on Zanu PF youths and women’s wings for survival, the divorce with war veterans would come at a serious cost for the nonagenarian.

“While Mugabe might do away with the ageing war veterans, a question still remains as to what impact this breakdown in the relationship might have on his relationship with the security structures of the State,” Magaisa said.

“Senior figures of the military and other parts of the military are also veterans of the war and members of the war veterans association.

“These military officers are in an invidious position because on the one hand, they are part of the military command structure which is led by Mugabe and on the other hand, they are also members of a ‘trade union’ of war veterans, which is now attacking their commander. Where do they stand in all this?”

Magaisa said if Mugabe failed to handle the fallout well, many war veterans might cross the floor to join his former deputy, Joice Mujuru’s Zimbabwe People First because they can easily identify with her party.

Political analyst Alexander Rusero said the war veterans’ July 21 declaration would have far-reaching consequences on Mugabe’s leadership.

“We now have war veterans who reclaim their lost political space and align themselves with the protesting masses,” Rusero said.

“Previously, they were hooligans in Zanu PF’s smash and grab politics for the survival of Mugabe, as witnessed in the land reform programme. It is bad for Mugabe. They were appendages of his leadership.”

But Rusero said Mugabe would not go down without a fight and was likely to launch a witch-hunt against the former fighters.

“Zanu PF is burning. Mugabe will not care less because he will be ill-advised by opportunists cashing in on his political disasters,” he said.

“He will dump the war vets and surely, more opportunists will emerge to fill in their position.”

Rusero warned: “Whatever action, Mugabe is in danger. He is hanging by a thread.”

He said Mnangagwa would come out of the fallout unscathed because any action by Mugabe could backfire.

“Mugabe must confront reality. What the war veterans did is a vote-of-no-confidence on his rule. Mnangagwa may capitalise on this because he knows Mugabe’s bag of tricks is exhausted,” Rusero said.

Maxwell Saungweme, a political analyst, said war veterans were crying out for attention after being used and abandoned by the ruling party.

“The war vets are just paying back Mugabe in kind and in equal measure. They stood by him many times and even killed during Gukurahundi and participated in electoral violence from 2000 onwards,” he said.

“But now their patron has abandoned them as he is being misled by a selfish and ambitious crop of hangers-on and young politicians that now mislead him.

“He has too many parasites around him who are not interested in the nation’s well-being but their wealth,” Saungweme added.

“These are the only people that Mugabe now has. These are the people misdirecting him. The war vets did well by abandoning him. But we will not forget easily the atrocities some of them committed when all was still rosy and Mugabe was their man.”

Saungweme said the war veterans had put Mnangagwa on the spotlight by demanding that he should be allowed to take over from Mugabe.

“Mugabe will trash them [war veterans] as sell-outs and try to paint a picture that it is a few errant war vets behind his attack,” he said.

“He may try to clamp down on Ngwena [Mnangagwa], but this is a time where real men must stand up.

“Mugabe is so poorly advised that he no longer smells the coffee.”

Blessing Vava, an activist, said from the purging of former vice-president Mujuru’s camp and the emergence of the G40 faction mostly composed of the Young Turks in Zanu PF, indications were that the ruling party was on the verge of disintegration.

Mugabe, Vava said, seemed to have found new storm troopers in the youths and had already dumped the former liberation war fighters.

“There is now a new crop of people surrounding Mugabe and he never wanted his war comrades near the levers of power,” Vava said.

“After the war, a majority of them went into the army, police and now they think it is their time to be in politics, thus why they are pushing for Mnangagwa.

“However, Mnangagwa has already been exposed, previous experiences have shown us that he chickens out when the pot gets hot, choosing to be mum when his allies are being victimised.”

He added: “Action is obviously going to be taken to deal with the rebellious lot in the war veterans association.

“They will be divided and I foresee pressure mounting for an extra-ordinary congress that will replace Mutsvangwa and crew.”

Meanwhile, the government dismissed the war veterans as traitors and said investigations were underway to smoke out the authors of the hard-hitting statement.

“Government… dismisses the said traitorous so-called communiqué, which is treasonable in the constitutional democracy that Zimbabwe is,” Retired Brigadier-General Asher Tapfumaneyi, the most senior civil servant in the veterans ministry, was quoted saying by State-controlled media yesterday. “Multi-agency investigations are underway to establish its origins, authorship, ownership and purpose,” he said, adding the government would “bring all associated with it to justice.” Tapfumaneyi expressed dismay at the statement and said the government was working to address most of their grievances by April 2017, a year before the next presidential election. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980. “Any agitation or activism outside this very constructive process in the manner of this purported communiqué would therefore be misguided, treacherous and outright counterproductive,” he said, adding that some former fighters were distancing themselves from the ZNLWVA statement. As Mugabe shows signs of frailty, senior members of the ruling Zanu PF party are positioning themselves for the post-Mugabe era. Two factions have emerged, one linked to Mnangagwa and one to Mugabe’s wife. —Additional reporting by Reuters.