Does Zimbabwe have war veterans that were one-year-old when the country attained independence?

Opposition legislator Susan Matsunga has called on Veterans Minister Monica Mavhunga to clean up the database of war veterans and war collaborators because there could be some people who were one-year-old at independence but are claiming to be war veterans.

Mavhunga admitted that there were some very young people within the database but some of them were collaborators who were deployed as spies because whites would not suspect them of being war collaborators.

Q & A:

HON. MATSUNGA: My supplementary to the Minister of Veterans of the Liberation Struggle is; there are challenges in trying to uplift the lives of those who fought the war and their children. Sometime ago in this House, it was suggested that we should come up with a database because you find that people like me who were born in 1979 are saying they are war veterans. So, we want the Minister to come back with a database because you find that us grandchildren of war veterans, were also benefiting claiming that we are war veterans. 

We want documentation which shows that these are war collaborators and these are war veterans. 

HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA: What I can say is that it was our initial plan that when we started vetting, the database is there because they have been vetted and they are classified as war veterans but coming to the group that were registered in August, it is there so that we verify and screen in order to come up with a clean record. What has come up through our investigations is that some who were very young during the struggle are the ones who were being sent as spies because the whites would not suspect them to be war collaborators. So, after that, we will bring the database.

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