ZANU PF Director for Information and Publicity, Cde Farai Marapira says war veterans are a vital cog of the Party and their representation must not be imposed on willy-nilly.
Speaking during an interview on ZIFM, Cde Marapira said, “As ZANU PF we only recognize properly constituted bodies. We have the war veterans association which is one of the first affiliates of ZANU PF. We have representatives of the war veterans in the Politburo itself who speaks on behalf of war veterans and his Deputy who speak on behalf of the war veterans,” Cde Marapira.
“I think we need to disabuse also the people of Zimbabwe on the issue of seniority of war veterans. When war veterans came from the war as from my understanding of history, some chose to go home, some chose to join the army, some the Police, some the civil service and some went into private venture. But seniority of war veterans of war veterans is pre 1980. Anything that followed after 1980 is now a different Zimbabwe. It was no longer a period of war veteranship. So seniority after 1980 does not equate seniority during the liberation war.
”So it is something that we need to understand in as much as people who speak their minds and have their minds have their opinions, which is their constitutional right and which as ZANU PF, we defend. We defend everyone’s right to speak their mind. We seek to correct the issue of people that claim to speak on behalf of people on a position of post 1980 seniority who ch us an abuse of the history of the struggle and the history of the Party.”
He added that, “War veterans are a vital cog of the Party, of the nation, of the history of Zimbabwe. That can never be taken away. There can be no Zimbabwe without the war veterans and their efforts as well as the efforts of the chimbwidos and the ordinary citizens who were the water in which they were the fish. So everyone who participated within the efforts to liberate Zimbabwe are a vital cog on that matter. We cannot take that period of sacrifice and apportion representative ship upon yourself willy-nilly because it was not an easy period. As far as we know, the war veterans are fully behind #CAB3”