Mugabe fails to pay $37 m war vet children fees whilst squandering as much on his son - Matsotsi haagerai. P Guramatunhu

“Matsotsi haagerani!” goes the Shona saying. (Crooks should not cut each other’s hair!) It is a tongue in cheek remark to the embittered crook conned by his fellow crook! Here we have a whole army of rogue war veterans who have been conned by one master crook, Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

It is a matter of historic record that the rogue war veterans have been President Mugabe and Zanu PF’s storm troopers who have done the regime’s dirtiest work of harassing, beating, raping and even murdering innocent Zimbabweans to keep the regime in power against the democratic wishes of the populous.

The war veterans have betrayed their liberation war values of fighting for freedom and justice on the understanding that President Mugabe will share with them the spoils of absolute power and the wealth it brings. He promised them the moon on a silver platter but delivered, well, hell-on-earth. The only war veterans who have enjoyed a reasonable standard of living are those lucky enough to get a top job (not just any job) in civil service, army, CIO, etc.; the rest have suffered the hell-on-earth of the country’s relentless economic meltdown with the rest of the masses.

A year ago, the rogue war veterans demanded and were finally granted (after they were tear gassed and hosed down, just to remind them who is boss) a meeting with President Mugabe were they told the latter of the economic hardships.

President Mugabe, using a well-travelled path, made fresh promises of even greater economic prosperity for all war veterans and assured them all that school fees of the war veterans’ children and other allowances will all be paid.

Now it turns out that government $37 million in unpaid school fees for war veterans’ children and it is struggling to pay them their monthly pension.

So, the regime is failing to pay the school fees of the hundreds of thousands of war veterans’ children for even a substandard basic education but has the cash to pay for Mugabe’s son’s out of this world education needs. The regime is paying US$500 000 annually in rentals for an upmarket villa in Emirates Hills, Dubai for his accommodation alone.

“We can’t talk of our welfare with people who don’t know how to run a country,” said the embittered war veterans secretary general, Victor Matemadanda. “We have to ensure that this corrupt system is removed before we talk of our welfare.”

Comrade Matemadanda, in the end, we all get the government we deserve, if anyone deserves this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime the most, it you and your fellow rogue war veterans. You imposed the dictatorship on the nation and it is fitting that you should reap the harvest of bitterness and misery you sowed.

Do not worry Comrade Matemadanda, you and your fellow war veterans’ children’ fees will all be paid in full, every cent, in goats! You must have heard by now that goats are now the new up-market currency in Zimbabwe today!

“I believe our government is committed to taking care of the war veterans, but the resources are not there, once the economy turns around they will be taken care of,” said the War Veterans Minister Tshinga Dube.

He would say that wouldn’t he being one of the few benefiting from the corrupt and tyrannical system. It is what the rest of the people say that matters; if they were not denied a voice.

Zimbabwe has been sinking into economic poverty and despair for the last 37 years not because the country is poor in material and human resources, it has both in great abundance. It is the decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption that has dragged the country into the gutter. The only hope for the country to stop this criminal waste of resources peacefully is for the country to remove the corrupt and tyrannical political system from office. And for that, we need to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop President Mugabe rigging elections.

 Zimbabwe will be holding elections next year, it is foolish to allow them to process with no reforms in place because Zanu PF will rig the vote just as it has done since 1980. The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their right to free, fair and credible elections all their lives.

War veterans like Matemadanda have played their part in imposing the oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship, it would be great for them to do something positive and useful for a change -help dismantle the monster Zanu PF dictatorship they created. Help the ensure Zimbabwe’s first free, fair and credible elections and restore the nation’s dream of freedom, human dignity and economic prosperity for all and not just a select few.