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Jabulani Sibanda, expelled from Zanu-PF in November 2014 for undermining President Robert Mugabe, was in unlikely company on Saturday. Sibanda who was exposed for working with the Joice Mujuru cabal that plotted to unconstitutionally unseat the President, also served as national chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA). He lost that post too.

He is now one of the movers of the Zimbabwe People First led by Mujuru but was at the weekend invited to the war veterans’ Bulawayo provincial offices at Entumbane.

He shared the podium with the man who succeeded him at the ZNLWVA, Cde Chris Mutsvangwa, who himself is serving a three-year suspension from Zanu-PF for gross indiscipline. Cde Mutsvangwa was also kicked out of Cabinet where he was in charge of the Ministry of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, former Political Detainees and Restrictees.

He is still a Zanu-PF member, only serving a suspension. He still holds his post as Norton MP but, to many, his association with Sibanda on Saturday confirms why the ruling party sanctioned him and why President Mugabe was justified in sacking him from Cabinet.

It turns out that Cde Mutsvangwa; instead of taking his deserved punishment with humility, is actually thumbing his nose at the party. We acknowledge that the ZNLWVA is a voluntary organisation and its members are entitled, in terms of the national constitution, to associate with anyone they like.

However, they are an affiliate of Zanu-PF which means that Cde Mutsvangwa and his colleagues had to be more careful in picking a guest speaker for their Entumbane meeting. We are not convinced that Sibanda was an acceptable choice. He is a war veteran, yes, but one who is clearly working against Zanu-PF, which counts the ZNLWVA as an affiliate, and is an ardent opposition activist.

Their choice of the guest speaker was questionable enough but it gets worse if one considers the remarks that were made at the event, remarks that we normally associate with the opposition.

Sibanda alleged war veterans were being used, not specifying by whom, and urged them to unite. “Lobengula didn’t have a party,” he said, “Nehanda didn’t have a party but they were people defending their people . . .”

To slogans condemning the purported G40 faction, ZNLWVA secretary-general, Cde Victor Matemadanda described the Politburo as a “disciplinary Politburo” adding that the party has become one “for firing not hiring.”

The ZNLWVA recently requested a meeting with their patron, President Mugabe, who has accepted to interact with them. Now with what happened on Saturday and what leading figures in the national executive of the association have been saying in recent weeks, we aren’t sure if there is still need for the meeting to take place.

We totally agree with Zanu-PF Women’s League deputy secretary, Cde Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo in describing the Entumbane meeting as unacceptable.

We quote her elsewhere in this edition saying:
“If Zanu-PF reaches a position, we expect everyone including war veterans to be guided by such a resolution, but it appears there are some people who’re defying the party.

“It seems Jabulani Sibanda was included in the Entumbane meeting to sway war veterans to join Zimbabwe People First (led by Joice Mujuru, who was expelled from Zanu-PF). It becomes a problem when you start associating with people who are in the opposition.

“War vets have a right to conduct their meetings with their leaders, but what’s actually disturbing is that their leader had not formally informed us that he had left Zanu-PF because I believe when you start teaming up with a person who has been expelled from the party, it gives us a different picture altogether.”

She said those who attended the meeting acted in defiance of the party rules.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a war veteran, as long as you’re a Zanu-PF member you have breached the rules of the party, you’re defying party directions and we can’t stand by and watch as people are doing such things. Those people should come out in the open so that we know exactly who they really are because we don’t want people coming to our meetings playing two roles, one for Zanu and the other for the opposition.”

What happened at the weekend is akin to the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Collaborators Association – a ruling party affiliate as well – or the Zanu-PF Youth League inviting Dzikamai Mavhaire or Jim Kunaka as a speaker to their meeting and still pretend that that meeting is not an opposition one.