Mugabe regime arrests another leading Zimbabwe war veteran

Zimbabwe’s police arrested a leading war veteran on Monday as he left a court where a colleague was answering charges of insulting President Robert Mugabe.

Victor Matemadanda, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association, was the second official detained in the last week.

These previously loyal supporters of Mr Mugabe – who fought in his guerrilla army during the war against white Rhodesia from 1972 until 1979 –  denounced their old commander as a “dictator” last month and said they would not back him at the next election in 2018.

Mr Mugabe responded by threatening those who signed the critical statement with “severe” punishment. He previously relied on the war veterans to assault, torture and sometimes murder opposition supporters.

But the war veterans’ spokesman, Douglas Mahiya, was arrested last Wednesday and appeared at Harare Magistrate’s Court on Monday to apply for bail.

After attending this hearing, Mr Matemadanda was arrested. He is expected to be charged with the same offence of “insulting” Mr Mugabe.

Outside the court, war veterans danced and sang while condemning the ruling Zanu-PF party.  “The war veterans (loyal to Mr Mugabe) have taken too long to realise what Zanu-PF,” said Wilson Nharingo, the head of a rival group called the Zimbabwe Liberators’ Platform. “We have been telling them for so long, and they have finally realised this 36 years later.”

“We went to war for liberation, democracy, freedom of speech, social justice. That is not what Zanu-PF delivered,” he said. “The war veterans must now realise they were betrayed. There is no going back on this now.”