Zimbabwe’s war veterans, war collaborators and ex-detainees have been summoned to Harare to show solidarity with President Robert Mugabe who is currently under siege following last week’s statement in which the former freedom fighters called Mugabe a dictator who no longer listened to the people and had ditched war veterans for youths who are supporting his wife to take over from him.
The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has been in a state of panic since the communiqué though senior party officials including Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and War Veterans Minister Tshinga Dube have dismissed the unsigned document as the work of rogue elements or Fifth columnists.
Today’s demonstration is therefore likely to receive overwhelming support but with war collaborators and ex-detainees invited, it will not be clear who the genuine war veterans are.
The show of solidarity was also organised by a junior official of the war veterans association indicating that senior officials were distancing themselves from the event
This will therefore still leave the crucial question of how long Mugabe will continue to hold the fort as he has largely survived on the support of the war veterans over the past 16 years.
Opposition activists have given Mugabe until the end of next month to step down.
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