Grace snubbed elected war vets

On October 22, Grace organised a meeting at her children’s home in Mazowe where she publicly called on President Robert Mugabe’s deputy, Joice Mujuru, to resign.

The likes of Joseph Chinotimba and Patrick Nyaruwata featured prominently as the ex-combatants’ representatives and the sitting top leadership was not acknowledged. Currently, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) is led by Jabulani Sibanda, with Shadreck Makombe as its secretary general.

James Kaunye, the ZNLWVA publicity secretary, told The Zimbabwean that when they learnt of the Mazowe meeting, the association sent Makombe to represent them, but he was snubbed.

“We sent Makombe as our SG (secretary general), but he was not acknowledged. We didn’t like that. There was a blackout on the real war vets leadership and we know that was done for selfish and personal reasons,” said Kaunye.

Chinotimba, who the war vets leadership last week said was “discredited” and “corrupt”, sat at the high table and Grace jokingly remarked that he was eligible to take Mujuru’s position. Makombe sat among ordinary delegates and Grace never recognised his presence.

A group from the war veterans’ movement, which calls itself the association’s elders and to which Chinotimba and Nyaruwata belong ,recently announced that the Sibanda group had been disbanded.

However, Kaunye dismissed the claim, saying the “so-called elders” were an unconstitutional team that was being used to fight Zanu (PF) factional wars.

“There is no terminology like ‘elders’ in our constitution. Those people have no authority to stand on our behalf. They are causing confusion and division along factional lines and would like to present themselves as kingmakers and saviours when the truth is that they are not,” said Kaunye.

He added that it was well-known that the Zanu (PF) membership was divided along factional lines, pointing out that Mugabe had singled out Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the party’s legal guru, as the heads of the camps during a recent politburo meeting. He urged the two factions to meet and unite so as to preserve the party.

Mugabe, the ZNLWVA patron, recently called on the association to reconstitute ahead of the Zanu (PF) elective congress early next month. Kaunye, however, said his team still had the mandate to lead ZNLWVA until February next year when the next elections are due.

“If the president, as our patron, insists that we should reconstitute, so be it. However, it must be known that he is being misled by unpatriotic and divisive elements who are only interested in power. Despite this small group that is bent on causing havoc, we are still intact as a movement,” said Kaunye.

Turf wars within ZNLWVA were reignited after Grace was nominated to lead the women’s league, a position that will be formalised at congress. Sibanda snubbed Grace’s countrywide “thank you” tours and described her elevation as a “bedroom and boardroom coup”.

It is believed that Grace is fighting from the Mnangagwa corner. At the Mazowe meeting, she hinted that Mnangagwa could take over from Mujuru and her nomination was engineered by Oppah Muchinguri, who has been linked to the justice minister’s camp.