Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
REVOLUTIONARY movements from around the world are expected in the country today ahead of the inaugural elective Zanu-PF War Veterans League conference that kicks off in Harare on Friday.
Former liberation armed wings have upped the game in defence of their nations’ sovereignty against renewed efforts by the former colonisers with Zimbabwe being used as a case study to show the imperialists’ perceived power by imposing sanctions to counter the country’s successful land reform programme- to control independent nations.
Politburo member and War Veterans association secretary Cde Douglas Mahiya in an interview yesterday said the Lancaster House talks were never really an agreement but a mere blueprint to end the armed struggle which was clearly exterminating the whites. He said Britain and its allies were aware of that hence the move to end the bloody war but the cease-fire gave them an opportunity to wage another revolution.
“This time it’s an economic revolution but as war veterans, we are fully aware of that and ready to defeat them again, victory is most certain as we did before.
“Our liberation war cadres and Zanu-PF friends will be joining us to show their solidarity with our cause but also more crucially for us as war veterans from the region and abroad to have one common goal which will lead to the economic emancipation of the armed struggle veterans and protection of our countries from these imperialists who have found breeding grounds through puppet opposition parties, ” said Cde Mahiya.
He said the elective conference will also result in the former freedom fighters coming up with economic blueprint programmes needing political interventions in order to empower members and contribute towards the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) as well as Vision 2030.
“We will look back into some of the achievements and failures that have been made by the war veterans since independence, see where we can correct, politically, things that we have not done particularly towards the protection of the country’s hard-fought independence in view of the proliferation of these puppet political organisations whose purpose we are all aware of,” said Cde Mahiya.
The conference, set to be officially opened by the Zanu-pf First secretary, President Mnangagwa, will also see elections to choose the first-ever national executive ahead of the revolutionary party’s 7th People’s National Conference next month.
A total of 26 delegates from each of the 72 war veterans’ association’s administrative districts plus 40 provincial executive members per province as well as the four nominated members for the national executive committee per province will attend the conference.
Before the Unity Accord agreement, ZANU and ZAPU comprised three Wings, Main, Women and Youth Wing. They also had the two-armed wings, Zanla and Zipra respectively and after the creation of Zanu-PF in 1987 the party embraced the other three wings except the military wing which existed during the armed struggle.
As a result, a Central committee meeting of the party in November 2017 resolved to have a Veterans’ League in recognition of the role played by Zanla and Zipra combatants in the liberation of the country. In 2019, the Central Committee implemented the 2017 resolution by adopting the creation of the War Veterans League as an integral part of the party.
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