adminNduduzo Tshuma Senior Political Reporter
WAR veterans have endorsed the proposal for First Lady Umama Grace Mugabe to take over the leadership of the Zanu-PF Women’s League saying she supported the party’s ideology and had been slapped with illegal sanctions for doing so.
The ex-combatants also warned factions within the party to desist from abusing the First Lady’s name so as to appear stronger than the other saying Umama Mugabe was not aligned to any faction.
Speaking to Chronicle yesterday, Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association chairman Cde Jabulani Sibanda said Umama Mugabe deserved the position as she had suffered so much defending the struggle.
“We support the idea for the First Lady to land that post because she is a very strong woman. Some may say she did not go to war but one does not need to have gone to war to be a leader. They should conduct themselves in a manner that brings people together,” said Cde Sibanda.
“The First Lady is under sanctions for supporting her husband’s ideology. She, like war veterans, is not in the politburo or central committee but remains under sanctions from the Western countries because of her defence of the revolution.”
Cde Sibanda said the First Lady’s nomination was done outside factional lines and therefore her name should not be abused.
“We would like to warn those who want to use the innocent name of the First Lady to create an impression that their faction is stronger than the other. The First Lady is against factionalism. The President is a man of wisdom and we trust he will deal with any faction that will try to abuse the name of the First Lady,” he said.
“The First Lady fights for a revolution not as a woman but as a comrade. She is a unifier and the party will emerge stronger with her at the helm of the Women’s League.”
Cde Sibanda revealed that their national executive would soon meet and come up with resolutions to take to the Zanu-PF congress in December.
“The resolutions that I think will come out of that meeting would be that Parliament draft laws that will empower our people. When we fought the war, there were soldiers at the front, now the front is Parliament that should make laws that will cater for the needs of the people,” he said.
Cde Sibanda said the other probable resolution was that they would call for all land outside the jurisdiction of urban councils to be classified as state land.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are black, red, and pink or white, the land has to be declared state land. When we changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe everything became national. We do not need to nationalise that which belongs to us, what the whites should do is approach us and ask what they can do since they have been exploiting our resources. We do not need to ask for 51/49 percent on our resources,” he said.
derick.khumalo