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WE read with utter dismay yesterday that some Government officials are frustrating President Mnangagwa’s efforts to empower some war veterans.

In 2020, he ordered the allocation of 35 gold and lithium claims to war veterans in various parts of the country as part of a range of measures by his administration to economically empower the cadres. Some of the claims have been allocated to their owners yet others haven’t, with corrupt officials frustrating the programme.

Speaking during an interaction with veterans of the struggle at Davies Hall in Bulawayo on Thursday, Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister was angry over the matter.

President Mnangagwa

“We are hearing that the delays are as a result of underhand dealings by officials and I have reported that to the President. We are investigating and I want to assure you that we will get to the bottom of the matter. War veterans should never suffer,” she said.

War veterans sacrified their all for the liberation of their country. Some crossed the border to train as soldiers while they were in their early teens. A number spent up to 20 years in the bush, fighting to free their motherland. Some sustained lifelong injuries during those years while others paid the ultimate price. These are brave men and women who put the national interest ahead of self-interest. They forewent their youths for their country. For that and more they deserve respect; they deserve to be honoured.

However, some officials think they are too clever to frustrate a presidential programme to honour the national heroes.

Corruption is bad and intolerable but the officials are taking their not-so-funny tricks too far.

We tell them with utmost equanimity that what they are trying to do is to challenge the President. That, too, is to challenge war veterans and the millions of ordinary people countrywide who adore their liberators. They are trying to turn the veterans against the President.

You don’t do that. It can’t.

It is good that, as Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said, she has reported the officials to the President and investigations are already underway.

We want the investigations to be intensified and expedited so that the persons who are trying to be bigger than their boots are exposed; not only exposed, but also severely punished. Our liberators did not spend decades in the woods amid landmines, snakes, lions and lethal fire so some few greedy malcontents can attempt to deprive them of the economic empowerment they richly deserve.

There is absolutely no reason why the cadres have not started working on their mines two years after the President ordered that they get them. Two years is too long for one to begin work on a mining claim. Depending on the resources at one’s disposal, it does not take more than six months from the time of applying for a mining claim, getting one allocated to them and starting work on the ground. However, we have, in the case in point, beneficiaries as respectable as war veterans waiting for 24 months to be allocated claims already approved by the President. That is nonsensical and that nonsense must be stopped.