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President Emmerson Mnangagwa has warned liberation movements on the African continent and beyond to stand guard against neo-colonial detractors still hovering over sovereign and independent nations.
The warning was delivered during the ZANU (PF) Inaugural Conference of the War Veterans League that kicked off in Harare today and was attended by delegates from sister revolutionary parties from the African continent and beyond.
“Neo-colonial detractors still hover over our sovereign and independent nations, panting for our rich natural resources. Their tactics may be seemingly less brute; however, as the generation that confronted them with guns and bullets, we are well aware of their devious schemes. Let us close ranks, within our region and on the African Continent for unity and solidarity is our strength,” President Mnangagwa said.
He paid tribute to the war veterans whom he referred to as comrades, revolutionary, brave, courageous, gallant men, and women who took arms to liberate the country from the brutal yoke of colonialism.
He said the meeting heralds a new dawn in the colossal mass Party, ZANU PF, and said it calls for celebration, with the long-awaited convening of the Inaugural Conference of the War Veterans League. President Mnangagwa said the establishment of the strategic organ of the Party is in honour of all the veterans who placed and even lost their lives, on the line for freedom.
The theme of the Conference “Force of the Past, Power of the Present, and Inspiration of the Future” is befitting and apt in that it highlights the indispensable role of yesteryear’s heroes and heroines, and also today’s reliable, most-disciplined political and moral compass of the revolutionary Party.
President Mnangagwa said the revolutionary philosophy ‘shamwari yangu yeropa’ neatly bonded together the former ZIPRA and ZANLA cadres who jointly fought for one cause and one nation.
“As we gather, let us honour the many sons and daughters of the soil, “vana vevhu/abantwana bom’hlabathi” who are no longer with us. Some of whom are interred at the National Heroes Acre, across Provinces and Districts, while many others lie in unmarked graves both here and beyond our borders.”
He urged citizens to forever cherish the contribution of war veterans to the liberation of Zimbabwe. President Mnangagwa said the presence of comrades from sister revolutionary parties rejuvenates the political bond which was cemented by the camps, resources, ideology, and strategies shared in the fight to end colonialism, apartheid as well as other forms of oppression and exploitation.
“As the war veterans and indeed the people of Zimbabwe, we remain grateful for your solidarity and support during our protracted armed liberation struggle, which subsequently led to the attainment of our Independence in 1980. We equally thank your various organisations for standing with our Party and country against the illegal and unjustified economic sanctions being inflicted on us by our detractors and erstwhile colonisers.
“The ideological bonds we share will forever blend our DNA as progressive forces and guarantors of a secure and prosperous future for our peoples. No matter the nomenclature of our political parties, or the colonial boundaries that define our present borders, we are all one people and the children of this great region and Continent of Africa,” President Mnangagwa added.
He commended the War Veterans League for successfully and peacefully conducting the League’s elective District and Provincial Conferences. President Mnangagwa said the election of a woman veteran, Cde Linda Mutate as Chairman of the War Veterans League in Manicaland Province, along with many others who constitute the League’s structures at Provincial and District levels, is a demonstration of the gendered nature of the struggle for independence. It reinforces the fact that both men and women played their part in dismantling the oppressive white colonial regime. Similarly, he said in the present national development epoch, all of them have a role to play, regardless of gender, in building our motherland, Zimbabwe.
He said war veterans should never abdicate the responsibility to inculcate patriotism, loyalty, hard-honest work, sacrifice, and self-belief among the younger generation and challenged them to be exemplary and be the embodiment of the Party’s ideology, national character, culture, and value system.