Over a time, we have had a situation where the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in this country, except for the GNU has been a ZANU PF Minister of Finance and Economic Development. ZANU PF prides itself for being a revolutionary party but their behaviour is counterrevolutionary to a point where they are not even able to support the war veterans. So, how can you be a revolutionary party when you are counterrevolutionary and you are not able to support the war veterans? No Minister of Finance and Economic Development has ever put aside some money for the war veterans in terms of their welfare. Minister Chinamasa, even in his budget, there was no money for their welfare. We go on to create a Ministry of War Veterans with what, because we want to appease them and we are busy saying the war veterans complain and they talk too much. We treat them like kids. A Ministry with no money, what does it mean? It is just there to just patronise them and to now make them keep quiet. We cannot have a situation where we have a department of war veterans which is not funded.
Hon. Tshinga Dube, when he was the Minister of War Veterans, he is probably one of the few who was sincere in addressing the matters of the war veterans and in no time, he was fired. Now, we have the Vice President Hon. Chiwenga, who is now responsible for the war veterans. True, he is a war veteran and we would actually expect the welfare of war veterans to be taken care of but once again, it is not being taken care of.
The elections have come and gone. The elections are coming again and the President met the war veterans again. The former President also met the war veterans and when they meet the war veterans, we wonder what they talk about because their welfare never improves. I am hoping that the new dispensation sincerely deals with the welfare of the war veterans once and for all and not to then dangle a carrot. When we win elections, we will be able to look after the welfare of the war veterans. The welfare of the war veterans has become a national issue and from today, it is important for the people of ZANU PF to know that the welfare of war veterans is not a ZANU PF matter and if anything, we have taken it away from you because you have failed to deal with the issue. It has become a national matter and when we debate it, it is a national matter.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Address the Chair Hon. Member.
HON. MLISWA: You know Mr. Speaker Sir, when you address matters of the war veterans; we have war veterans that we respect in this House – Hon. Zindi and Hon. Kwaramba. So, I like to talk to them for them to see that we are there for them and we want this to be sincere. So at no point am I disrespecting you but I will take the normal position.
So, it is important that we understand that the MDC has been more vocal than ZANU PF in addressing issues of the war veterans and we all know that. I have been more vocal than ZANU PF in addressing the issues of the war veterans. So, it is a national issue and it is no longer a party issue. When we raise the debate, the war veterans too must take cognisant and support those who support their welfare and those who do not support their welfare, they must ditch them because it is important that they learn from this. For a very long time, they have suffered. They had the patron who was the former President of the Republic of Zimbabwe as a patron, and what did he do as a patron. Your patron is your father and for the 37 years that he ruled, he left nothing for the war veterans. In fact, we now hear that he was not even a war veteran himself. So now, we do not know what and I think it is also important that the war veterans know that people listen to them. When the former President, Cde. Mugabe was being relieved of his duties constitutionally, they said a lot about that; that he was never part of the struggle, he was just intelligent and smarter than them and he spoke better English than them.
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