Mugabe’s Broke Zanu PF To give Medals & uniforms To War Veterans

Zimbabwe’s has so far vetted 700 000 people and will vet an expected total of 300 000 people in the war veterans vetting exercice which will need a total of  US$4 million.

Close to 20 years ago,  Mugabe’s government  mismanagement and corruption had ruined the nation, with a costly involvement in the DRC war. This  was closely associated with a major civil service retrenchment programme demanded by the IMF for the government to drop the size of the civil service wage bill.

That particular war saw the rise and self enrichment of securocrats, through DRC diamond and mineral  coupled with Zimbabwe’s wildlife poaching by the officers. That was the beginning of the filthy rich class of securocrats, in which we can all look back and say that is when the regime learnt the skill of monopolising wealth and power and militarising diamond and mineral mining.

A real obvious example of the level of corruption stemming from that war is the shocking rise in the late general Solomon Mujuru’s wealth from that of an ordinary person to, leaving behind just over a decade later, a corruptly amassed  estate valued at over US$9billion.

Mugabe’s Zanu PF war veterans were beginning to voice their concerns openly that they had been led to believe they would be rewarded with land after the struggle but that never happened and they felt cheated by Mugabe’s deceitful conduct and were prepared to take things into their own hands.

Mugabe realised he had to regain control and seek relevance in a fast dying economy so he  implemented a  war veterans screening programme  in 1997 through which the government , rewarded all successful candidates with a one off payment of  $50 000  and $2000 monthly payment.

To the discerning eye, the most obvious outcome which is typical of many IMF programmes that result in cutting down the civil service sizes and IMF funding for development, the money will always be diverted by regimes led by dictators, who are traditionally unaccountable and divert a greater proportion of the funding towards strengthening their power.

For Mugabe, this was through weapons buying and funding the millitary, the impact of which we have all seen over the last 15 years with funds clearly diverted from service delivery in education, health, housing and so forth towards the millitary.

The war veterans vetting exercice is expected to end by  March 2016.

The Rtd Colonel Tshinga Dube  , the Deputy Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Political Detainees and Restrictees has announced that war genuine veterans will receive medals and uniforms for use on national events such as Independence Day and Heroes day, as part of the recognition exercise for their role in Zimbabwe’s liberation war.

This is typical of Mugabe’s vote buying nature. The liberation struggle now no longer resonates with the people of Zimbabwe who generally feel, it was right to be liberated from oppression by the oppressive white Rhodesian Ian Smith regime but inadvertently installed a more oppressive Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime of now filthy rich, corrupt and criminal multimillionaire  ‘Black oppressor of Blacks’ regime.

The 92 year old despot, has surrounded himself with staunch Zanu PF stalwarts and family in cabinet and  is now gearing to install his wife first lady Grace Mugabe as his successor in power.

He knows that his plans will meet with a lot of opposition from an already divided Zanu PF, split by damaging factional wars and has started a massive purging exercise that has seen traditionally state media  journalists arrested over the last week, promotion of army officers to senior military positions, and  promised to pay bonuses to security forces first in November 2015, and is giving the impression that Joice Mujuru will be forced to compensate previous owners of  the  late Ret gen Solomon Mujuru’s  Ruvimbo Farm in Beatrice to the tune of US$1,4 million from the estate. This all amounts to the despot’s open attempts to cement his  power and establish firm authority for Grace Mugabe’s rise. by Sibusiso Ngwenya