ZIMBABWE NETZWERK e.V.

Mugabe and the revolt of the war veterans

Alex Magaisa writes: " In October 1975, a group of young and radical ZANLA guerrillas stationed at Mgagao, a military training camp based in Tanzania, authored a document, now famously known as the Mgagao Declaration. In that document, the guerrillas denounced the leadership of Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, who was the President of ZANU and other nationalist leaders. They also extolled the virtues of Robert Mugabe describing him as the only "outstanding" leader who had "defied the rigours of guerrilla life in the jungles of Mozambique" and whom they respected more than other nationalist leaders. The Mgagao Declaration became the foundation of the revolt against Reverend Sithole and the platform upon which Mugabe was elevated to the leadership of ZANU, which was formalised at a special congress in 1977. On 21 July 2016, a group of veterans of the liberation war gathered at Harare and issued another declaration. "... we the veterans of Zimbabwe's war of liberation, together with our toiling masses, hereby declare that henceforth, in any forthcoming elections, will not support such a leader who has presided over untold suffering of the general population for his own personal aggrandizement and that of his cronies," wrote the war veterans in an unprecedented attack. "Such a leader" is, quite remarkably, Mugabe - quite a contrast from the glowing assessment 41 years before. ...".