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Nduduzo Tshuma Senior Political Reporter
WAR veterans in Matabeleland North met in Lupane on Saturday and endorsed President Mugabe as the party’s sole candidate for the Zanu-PF elective congress in December. The former liberation fighters also threw their weight behind First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe to take over the reigns of the Women’s League. Matabeleland North provincial war veterans chairperson Cde Jonathan Nkanyezi yesterday said they endorsed President Mugabe as they felt no one could replace him.
“We spoke about a number of issues including the presidency. We feel that President Mugabe is the only person fit to lead the party and country. We can’t trust these other politicians that we have voted for but are not doing anything for the people,” said Cde Nkanyezi.

“There is no replacement for President Mugabe. We also support that the First Lady leads the Women’s League. President Mugabe is our patron and by default the First Lady is also our patron as well.”

Cde Nkanyezi said the war veterans would also air their grievances to Dr Grace Mugabe who would then relay them to President.
“We are her children so when we go to her with our grievances, she will be able to take them to the President quickly. No one has taken our grievances seriously. The President is a good leader. The First Lady being his wife, by extension, has all the good traits that our leader has,” he said.

Cde Nkanyezi said the war veterans also raised concern over the removal of some of their colleagues from land allocated by the government.
“The President granted 20 percent of allocated land to war veterans but some corrupt land officials have been removing some of our colleagues from their land.
“When someone travels to the city, they would upon return realise that their land has been taken,” he said.

“We want that to be reversed and war veterans given back their land.”
Cde Nkanyezi said the war veterans did not discuss the issue of the vice presidency and the national chairpersonship.
“We did not touch on that issue because we have noticed that the big guns are battling for the post. We will talk about it later but we hope that one day we will be able to bring them together and reach a consensus. We are the ones campaigning for them so we will try and bring them together so that they have an understanding,” he said.

The Zanu-PF elective congress is scheduled to be held in Harare in December.