The Zimbabwe Peopleโs Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) Veterans Association has issued a stern warning against calls for an extended term for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, insisting that the constitution must be upheld and any deviation from it could lead to serious consequences, including bloodshed.
The warning from the ZPRA veterans highlights growing tensions within Zimbabweโs ruling elite as factions within Zanu PF continue to wrestle over Mnangagwaโs political future.
Addressing a press conference at the Bulawayo Media Centre on Thursday, ZPRA Veterans Association National Spokesperson, Buster Magwizi, expressed unwavering support for fellow war veterans who recently spoke out against the proposed extension of Mnangagwaโs tenure beyond 2028.
โOur solidarity is not just a message of solidarity. It is an expanded contribution for political correctness,โ Magwizi stated.
โThe veterans who stood out in a press briefing last week led by Blessed Runesu Geza in Harare were very correct because no one else has got the audacity to advise the government correctly on what to do or the leadership on what is straight and what is crooked. We hold the sanctity of the constitution sacrosanct.โ
Magwizi stressed the countryโs independence was won through the sacrifices of war veterans from both ZPRA and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), yet successive administrations have sought to divide the two liberation forces.
โThis country has been trying all along to separate ZPRA from ZANLA yet they are all war veterans. Yes, you will remember that even in animals, they do not see the same days. Now that everyone else is seeing the light, we stand in expanded solidarity at a confluence of ideas for political correctness,โ he said.
Magwizi also rebuked those who dismissed the veterans who spoke in Harare as โmad, crazy, and biased,โ warning such dismissals were misguided and motivated by selfish interests.
โWe would like to advise such kind of veterans who are misguided, who want to benefit out of corruption, that their days are numbered,โ he said.
Magwizi was referring to Local Government Minister Daniel Garweโs recent remarks aimed at reassuring Mnangagwaโs loyalists that plans to keep him in power until 2030 were still in motion.
Deputy National Spokesperson for the ZPRA Veterans Association, Joakim Moyo, condemned the push for a third term, labeling it fraudulent and a direct assault on the constitution.
โThere has been a litany of injustices which make us sick as ZPRA veterans. We have always stood as people advocating for political correctness, and we are prepared to go down, dying doing the same thing,โ Moyo declared.
โWe are a people who want to adhere to the constitution as a national guide and live by it. The spirit and the flesh of it should be observed by everyone, regardless of size. Probably let me get down to the constitution and say, we stand ready to defend the constitution of Zimbabwe, and would like to warn all those pushing the 2030 mantra that it is fraudulent.โ
Moyo said Zimbabweโs constitution is a product of national consensus and democratic principles, warning against any attempts to subvert it for political gain.
โThe current constitution was arrived at as a nationally driven issue. Everybody was consulted and everybody spoke. And our constitution observed the democratic principles that underlie what you call a democracy,โ he said.
Moyo also provided historical context, arguing that Zimbabweโs governance had been marked by illegalities from the start, particularly regarding the failure to properly integrate ZPRA and ZANLA forces after independence.
โThere was a failure to integrate both ZPRA and ZANLA. These forces had sweated to bring independence. They were soldiers of political correctness. But if you start bringing some in and leaving others out, elbowing some out, you are already creating an imbalance. And we are a lame state as it stands today because we stand on one foot, if not on half of it.โ
According to Moyo, freedom fighters expected the state to uphold its promises, but instead, they have been neglected and left to struggle.
โA democracy at its best is where everybody participates in the daily decision-making of what affects his or her life. Now people articulate that in a constitution, and you hear noises of a party, an individual, or a section wanting to tamper with the constitution, then you start asking yourself, how sane is this?โ he noted.
โLet me jog you through the history so that we buttress why we are saying the constitution should not be tampered with. First, in 1980, from the Lancaster House Talks, there was an agreement which was legal that we are the Patriotic Front.
โBut when we came here, somebody reneged and started entering here as a fraction of the Patriotic Front. That was illegal in the first place. Illegality from the start, garbage in, garbage out throughout.
โWe are asking to be recognised as a people who are committed, as people who want political correctness. If there was political correctness, veterans of the struggle would be leading the economic war because they had a practical hands-on approach on how to turn around an economy.โ
Moyo called on Mnangagwa to take decisive action against those advocating for constitutional amendments.
โThe constitution is bigger than any party, is bigger than any individual, is bigger than any section, and it should be an all-inclusive referendum where people say what they want and the things should be done correctly,โ he said.
The former freedom fighter warned that attempts to push for an unconstitutional third term could lead to serious political instability.
โThe presidential term is a two, five-year, limited issue that goes alongside the life of Parliament. Now, there are noises we hear that we want to change the constitution. That is what I can call in scientific terms, a mutative move. When genes go mad, they are not constructive but destructive. So this noise of trying to say we want to change the constitution, who are they?โhe questioned.
Moyo reminded President Mnangagwa of his own public declaration that he would not seek a third term, questioning the sincerity of his statement given the actions of his supporters.
โ(Mnangagwa) has said this and the party is saying that, yet the very two sit together and plan whatever they want to say. His statement is questionable. It is clear what he says is not what he believes in. We are appealing to him to live by his word, walk his talk,โ Moyo said.
โThis revolution is not bloody and does not need to be bloody. Nobody should lose his life now. We lost enough blood during the liberation struggle.โ
