Back to Index

Reserve force another election ploy
Zimbabwe Liberators Platform (ZLP)
June 12, 2007

The Zimbabwe Liberators Platform (ZLP), a non-partisan, non-governmental organization formed by genuine and enlightened war veterans, questions government's motive behind the proposed creation of the War Veterans Reserve Force.

Clearly, the demobilization of those war veterans who could not be accommodated in the national defence forces was recognition that the mission to liberate Zimbabwe had been accomplished with the attainment of independence in 1980.

Thus, ZLP finds it strange that 27 years later, government is remobilizing aging former liberation war fighters into the "Reserve Force".

Military mobilization presupposes that the country is under threat. However, as former freedom fighters whose patriotism is unquestionable, we are not aware of any internal or external threat to our independence. In fact, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region is presently the most stable and peaceful bloc in the whole of Africa. Added to this, the proposed creation of the reserve force comes at a time when government is failing to sustain the regular army. Instead, government should seriously consider reducing expenditure on defence which is currently getting one of the largest allocations from the national budget.

Of concern to us is the recruitment procedure for this force, which is spearheaded by retired army generals and commanders, who are Politburo members of the ruling ZANU PF party. This assumes that all war veterans are members of the ruling party and are therefore accountable to it. The danger of creating seemingly partisan armies is still vivid in the minds of most Zimbabweans. The Gukurahundi experience of the mid-1980's was a result of the above. This was followed in 2000 by a wave political violence and serious human rights violations which were perpetrated on the people in the name of war veterans.

Some of the rogue elements within the ranks of the war veterans and partisan youth militias were used by some unscrupulous politicians for their selfish ends, in return for short-term financial gain. Such action brought the image and heroic reputation of war veterans into disrepute.

In statements issued during that period, ZLP even warned those war veterans that they were being used as cannon fodder for political expediency. Indeed history has vindicated us as most of those war veterans have since been evicted from the farms they had occupied, to make way for the big fish.

Against this background, we make a clarion appeal to all genuine war liberators to remain focused on the ideals and values of the liberation struggle and desist from being used especially in light of the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2008. The timing of the creation of the so-called reserve force could not be coincidental.

Visit the ZLP fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP