Setting the tone for unity

The following are remarks by Zanu-PF Secretary for War Veterans’ Affairs, Dr Sydney Sekeramayi, at yesterday’s meeting between President Mugabe and members of the Zimbabwe Ex-Political Prisoners, Detainees Restrictees Association, and widows and widowers of liberation war heroes, war collaborators and non-combatant cadres.
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Dr Sydney Sekeramayi
Gathered before you, Your Excellency, are men and women who sacrificed their lives and contributed in various ways to the liberation struggle that led to the attainment of the Independence of Zimbabwe on the 18th of April, 1980.

This meeting, Your Excellency, is a sequel to the one you held with the veterans of the liberation struggle on the 7th of April 2016 at this same venue.
Your Excellency, the comrades gathered here are former political detainees and restrictees as covered under the Ex-Detainees Act, widows and widowers of national liberation war heroes as defined under the National Heroes Act and War Victims Act, war collaborators, and comrades who went to war but ended up in the refugee camps in Mozambique and Zambia who we now refer to as non-combatant cadres.

I wish on behalf of this august gathering to welcome you, Your Excellency, and express profound gratitude for taking time from your exerting schedule and agree to meet us.
We are indeed following your commitment and noble example.

Only on Wednesday you returned from a high profile global engagement in Morocco and on Thursday were at Bindura University where you capped thousands of graduates; and yesterday you were in Victoria Falls where you officially opened the new airport; and today we are happy you are here with us.

We must take heart and applaud your commitment and sacrifice to squeeze us in for this meeting especially knowing that this time of year that your diary is full with graduation ceremonies and your usual party and Government commitments.

The purpose of this meeting is to avail the gathered comrades an opportunity to discuss with you and air in detail all issues to do with their welfare, political main streaming in the party and the society at large, their relationship with the party, economic empowerment, their own organisational structures and the liberation war heritage.

In this meeting, Your Excellency, we have about 350 representatives of all the categories I have mentioned above. There are 100 representatives for each category except for war victims who number about 50.
We have had to limit numbers for logistical reasons.

At the close of this meeting, Your Excellency, these representatives will go back to inform and disseminate the outcome to their various constituencies.
Yesterday we conducted thematic discussions. We had five thematic groups, namely: welfare and benefits; party ideology, economic empowerment; threats to the party and revolution; and the liberation war heritage.

We made sure that all categories of veterans were represented in the thematic groups. This is the stage in which all issues were raised, thrashed out and recommendations were made.

At the end of the thematic discussions each group produced a report that selected members of each group are going to present in this plenary to you, Your Excellency. You will then be requested to respond to the issues raised in your keynote address.
All our deliberations are being minuted very closely so that the conclusions and recommendations are very clear.

I want to conclude by reassuring you that as the Department of War Veterans in the party, working closely with the Ministry for War Veterans, we are resolute in pursuing your executive mandate to organise and unify all veterans of the liberation struggle under the statutory mandate which flows from the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Constitution of Zanu-PF and the four Acts of Parliament that are administered by the Ministry of War Veterans.
In order to have this meeting we had to call equal numbers from a rival groups in the various categories.

We want them to unite and have single structures in each category and support the party in a more organised way.
We know that the division that we are witnessing are not along ideological lines; Zanu-PF has one tried and tested ideology which we must follow.
In this meeting and looking into the future, we urge comrades to focus on politics principle.

That way it is easy to resolve problems and contradictions and easy to move forward as a party that cannot be defeated by the mushrooming puppet political parties serving the interests of our former colonisers.

This way, we believe, it will be easy for the party and Government to address the problems that face us.
When we are divided and not speaking with one voice, it is very difficult for problems to be resolved. If we are united, we will succeed. It is often said united we stand, divided we fall.

I believe this meeting has set the tone for the unity of the organisation and main streaming we have always wanted.
I would like to inform you, Your Excellency, that the deliberations that were conducted yesterday were frank, cordial, orderly and very fruitful.
The comrades gathered here are eager to hear your wise counsel.

I wish to thank you for once again these comrades an opportunity to interact with you and listen to your words of wisdom that will build Zimbabwe.
I thank you, Your Excellency.