The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Time to have wartime register

- Tlaudi Njikizana, Via e-mail.

EDITOR — As a citizen, I think it is time for Zanu-PF that when we have different accounts of whether someone participat­ed or did not participat­e in the war of liberation, a commission comprising members of the war veterans associatio­n, non-members who are still former liberation fighters and members from war collaborat­ors be set up to vouch to the person’s claims.

The case of Professor Jonathan Moyo is not unique. Others have escaped such scrutiny.

The said group can corroborat­e the claims, since they know the relevant questions to ask.

Using Prof Moyo’s narrative as a case analysis, one would want to know why a teenager from Matabelela­nd would go to Zambia and join ZANLA?

What attracted him when his colleagues were joining the other wing, ZIPRA?

He says that when he got to Mgagao as a recruit who was not well, he was made to sleep at the commander’s bed? With all the protocol in the military, how possible or easy was this?

According to accounts we have been reading in The Sunday Mail, apart from the vetting system, would-be freedom fighters would immediatel­y assume a new identity.

This was done for their safety and that of their families. What was his nom de guerre?

How many freedom fighters were ferried to Tanzania in OAU vehicles? The contradict­ion about joining the ZANLA forces also has an ethnic tinge. During the one night stand at Mgagao, he learns about the slaughter of Ndebele-speaking fighters, but still refuses to go to Morogoro, the ZIPRA camp. It does not make sense. This is why such vetting commission­s are important.

 ??  ?? Prof Moyo
Prof Moyo

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