VETERANS of Zimbabwe’s 1970s struggle for independence hold the power to decide who will rule the country between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga, a Zanu PF central committee member has said.
Former legislator and Zanu PF legislator Blessed Geza has also accused party colleagues of personalising Mnanagwa, who is now sidelining the ex-combatants who risked their lives in the push to remove the late former President Robert Mugabe ahead of the 2017 coup.
In an explosive interview with HStv recently, Geza revealed that the Zanu PF war veteran’s league was not the final voice of war vets, but existed as another group which is interested in the day-to-day ruling of the country.
He accused Lands and Agriculture minister Anxious of grabbing land from war veterans, saying: “We are warning Masuka that he should return war veterans their land as soon as possible. We are giving him a one-month deadline. I am going to mobilise the war veterans and the masses to forcefully take back the land.
“We will start with the land belonging to State officials, we will take their land. We are just going to leave Mnangagwa and Chiwenga’s farms,” said Geza in an interview with HStv.
He added: “We hear a lot of them talking about 2030 … if we don’t want any of them to be President it simply won’t happen.”
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Geza also ripped into former State Security minister Owen Mudha Ncube, saying he was not qualified for that position indicating that it was only suitable for war veterans and those who stood with Mnangagwa during Operation Restore Legacy.
“We don’t do that we are disciplined people we understand what a leader is, hence I don’t want to be seen at the house of the President like what others are doing, they go to Sherwood. We are going to stop that.
“We have our own ways when we want things to happen. Zvese zviya zvekuti vana Mudha vanoswera vachiwungana vachiita President munhu wavo [This business of Mudha gathering people making the president their own), we will stop it. Mupfanha akaita saMudha uya anofamba mu Sheraton achitaura kuti kana ndisipo inini Mnangagwa haapo [This young Mudha fellow walks around at Rainbow Towers Hotel saying if he is not present, so will Mnangagwa].
“These people are criminals, they are not honest they know exactly what the top leadership likes to hear. Our top leadership like gossip and the criminals know this quite well. They know that the leadership rewards those who gossip,” Geza charged.
Geza called self-imposed CCC secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu a “political criminal” who should be arrested for subverting the will of the people.
“We went to war because we wanted a multi-party democracy. We went for elections last year. It is not a secret that the opposition won over two million votes.
“The CCC had their primary elections following their process, went to the nomination court and got sworn in Parliament and out of nowhere we now hear a name we never heard of being recalled by Tshabangu recalling Members of Parliament.
“You support him what do you seek to achieve, while they already have two million people as war vets we don’t like this,” he raved.