14 August 1997

  We had two days holiday this week for
  Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day.
  War veterans heckled President Mugabe
  during his speech at Heroes Acre in Harare,
  the equivalent of the Queen being heckled
  on Armistice Day.  Other events throughout
  the country were either badly attended or
  disrupted in some way by war veterans. 

The Minister of Home Affairs banned demonstrations for two weeks after a group of war veterans staged daily demonstrations outside the Sheraton Hotel in Harare during the African-African American Conference. The conference gives prominent black Americans an opportunity to come to Africa to show their ‘solidarity’. After emitting lots of hot air and making a string of empty promises they disappear back home to forget all about Africa.

War veterans have been causing trouble ever since the Independent revealed the existence of a secret $470 million War Victims Compensation Fund which has been exhausted within eight months. Those in the know - government ministers, party officials, civil servants and their relatives were all awarded large sums of money for sustaining up to 90% ‘disability’ during the fight for independence. Mugabe was forced to order a Commission of Enquiry, which started hearing evidence last week.

It has been very revealing. Most beneficiaries consider the amounts awarded to be ‘peanuts’ (even though many exceed twenty years salary for the average manual worker) and think they deserve more. Some said they would make further claims, despite the trivial nature of their injuries. Most complaints centred on the bad food and minor scratches and discomforts of life in the bush. Few had suffered serious injury such as the loss of limbs or sight. An extremely large lady had successfully claimed compensation for ‘loss of appetite’. In another case, one of the commission judges pointed out that a witness who had received money for ‘impaired hearing’ seemed to hear everything perfectly well. The witness indignantly responded, with a typical non sequitur, that he heard voices in the night!

One cabinet minister, Joyce Mujuru, (a prominent member of the Salvation Army) complained that the charges had been trumped up by political opponents. She said she had never claimed to have been injured in the war, even though she received over $300,000. When questioned about the people who had certified her as being ‘impaired’, she denied having asked anyone to assess her injuries and didn't know how they'd got hold of an application form on her behalf. Pressed further, she said she'd been ordered to make a claim by a person whose identity she refused to reveal! Top-level mendacity in Zimbabwe has yet to reach a degree of sophistication beyond that of a twelve year-old.

Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of the war veterans, appeared before the commission accompanied by a gang of chanting supporters brandishing knobkerries, axes and other threatening weapons. The police refused to intervene. He had not only claimed compensation for himself, but being a medical doctor, had examined some of the other beneficiaries, including at least two close relatives.

An unintended consequence of the hearings is that female war veterans have used them to reveal the extent of the sexual abuse they suffered during the liberation struggle. Obviously, there have been great efforts by the men to sweep that disgrace under the carpet.

The war veterans refuse to accept that the fund is exhausted and want their claims to receive urgent attention. When the ban on demonstrations was lifted, they laid immediate siege to the ZANU (PF) HQ holding some ministers hostage for several hours. Party offices in other parts of the country were ransacked.

In Bulawayo last week the coffin of a destitute war veteran was carried into the Provincial Governor's office and money demanded for a funeral. The deceased was quickly declared a War Hero - which means his family gets a life pension - and buried with all due ceremony at Bulawayo Heroes Acre.

Throughout, the veterans have wanted to meet Mugabe, their Patron, because they believe he hasn't been informed of their plight. How is it that everyone else knows? Their leaders were granted an audience on Wednesday, and suddenly changed strategy, demanding an immediate lump sum of $500,000 and a pension of $2,000 a month for all - including those who already have good jobs. This is a joke. The lump sum for the estimated 50,000 veterans would consume the whole of the government's annual budget! Chenjerai Hunzvi also demanded a place in the government. He is alleged to have set up a deal to buy $300 million of Chinese tractors, expecting to sell them to veterans when they get their payoff!

Another grievance is that the land promised during the liberation struggle has never materialised. Ministers and party officials have always been at the front of that particular queue, and stories abound of their idle and wasted farms. Veterans are losing patience, and have threatened to occupy white owned farms unless the issue is settled by next July.

All this has put Mugabe on the spot. As far as we can tell, he usually tries to avoid issues altogether (e.g. the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions after independence) in the name of national unity, and never attempts to face people with reality. This morning we watched his speech at the funeral of yet another Liberation War Hero (there seems to be at least one per week). He continues to blame colonial rule for mass poverty in the country, and promises to settle the land issue, warning that “those who stand in the way” will not be tolerated. We wait to see what this means, but it probably means nothing at all. However, the war veterans seem to have him cornered. He will have to placate them, though we can't imagine how.

Interestingly, although there have been a few letters to the Chronicle condemning the greed of the veterans - likening them to unworthy mercenaries - not a single veteran has come out to say they had fought for a higher cause such as self-determination and democracy. 

28 August 1998

In his commission recommendations, Justice Chidyausiku said Marufu used false documents in his application for compensation.  Marufu obtained documents stating that he had failed to join the army in 1980 because of injuries sustained during the war when he had actually joined the army and resigned on his own in1989.

Joyce Mujuru is now one of two Vice-Presidents of Zimbabwe.