War vets set to hold elective congress

THE Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) is set to hold its elective congress as soon as President Emmerson Mnangagwa returns from his annual leave, a senior official has said.

Minister of War Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Christopher Mutsvangwa, who is also the association chairperson, said this during a wide- ranging press conference at the ruling party headquarters recently.

President Mnangagwa, who is the ZNLWVA patron, began his traditional month-long break from work a few days before the Christmas holiday but remained in the country, occasionally attending to events that required his personal attention.

“We will be going for a congress as soon as our patron is back,” said Mutsvangwa.

“The ZNLWVA is an affiliate of the party (ZANU (PF). When we go to the elections, we go in concert and in consultation with the ruling party; we make no bones about that because like I told you during the days when the party was banned and when the party built an army, the expression of ZANU (PF) was ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army) and ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army). We were the ones that made that party survive when it was banned and it had gone into exile so we have no qualms about our allegiances.”

He said some ‘Jonny come lately’ have been trying to hijack the association with one group going as far as approaching the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) at Town House in the capital offering to work with the party but were rebuffed by the then mayor.

Mutsvangwa said he did not expect the group to try to hijack the association again but expressed concern at some former Rhodesian functionaries such as Bulawayo mayor, David Coltart who were trying to destabilise the association.

“Zanu PF is in our DNA and as the ZNLWVA we are very confident that under President Mnangagwa who has restored the Ministry of War Veterans, we are going to do very well,” he said, adding that the successes the country has made resulting in the upturn of the economy were through the inspiration of war veterans.

These include promotion of the smallscale gold miners that are now contributing the bulk of gold deliveries to Fidelity Refineries, new education thrust and inviting the Chinese to come in and buy the country’s tobacco, he said.

— New Ziana.