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Christopher Mutsvangwa

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Reporter—
War veterans executives ousted from Zanu-PF are now pressing for regime change under the façade of succession politics in revenge for their expulsion, analysts have said. They said antipathy was now driving war veterans and other expelled former party members to dine with the West. This comes in the wake of remarks by Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairman Mr Christopher Mutsvangwa describing the opposition MDC-T as a loyal opposition.

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MDC-T instigated the imposition of illegal Western sanctions on Zimbabwe in a bid to remove Zanu-PF from power.

Analyst Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi said: “While one understands the frustrations of the war veterans fraternity and Mr Mutsvangwa in particular given how they have been unfairly emasculated from the only party that they have given everything to, it is also crucial to caution that they have very little to gain if any by giving the opposition the benefit of doubt,” said the Tanzanian-based Mr Mugwadi.

He said the MDC was responsible the economic hardships caused by sanctions.

“No matter how much he may be tempted to put lipstick on a frog’s mouth, it can never be a beautiful girl but an even uglier frog,” he said.

“Mr Mutsvangwa with due respect needs to regroup with his ex-combatant troops and go back to the drawing board because a good puppet or imperialist is a dead one. The West by supporting the MDCs has made itself an incredible player as a potential observer of the elections ahead of 2013.

“In this light, the international community must be watchful if the West reject the outcomes as is their norm because they are a contestant although by proxy.”

Another political analyst, Mr Goodwine Mureriwa, said the war veterans were wounded and seeking revenge.

“When you are imbued with principles, you remain stuck to the revolutionary principles and cannot change goal post,” said Mr Mureriwa.

“Aligning yourselves with opposition agenda is tantamount to bhora musango. While you seek to threaten the party leadership, you end up destroying the revolutionary movement. You cannot go to bed with the opposition a creation of the West.”

Mr Mureriwa reminded Mr Mutsvangwa and his allies that there is a thin line between succession politics and Western sponsored regime change agenda.

A Harare- based nationalist and political analyst who elected to remain anonymous on account of protection of his public interest and reputation said: “It is inconceivable to believe that a revered and reputable war veteran like Mutsvangwa would make such utterances in the wake of available evidence that show the opposition political party that he says is loyal to the nation is the one that is contributing to the suffering of the people as a result of illegal sanctions that it advocated for and supported.”

Mr Mutsvangwa, the nationalist said, should reconsider his support for the MDC as against the interest of the nation at large.

“The Zimbabwe citizens will never be any better in a government led by the MDC party considering that it is a political party that seem to be furthering the interest of the colonial masters and imperialists Western countries.”

An American emissary visited Zimbabwe recently with indications the funders of the regime change agenda were roping in disgruntled ZNLWVA members for legitimacy.

Following the American’s visit last week, the war veterans’ leadership intensified their attacks on the President and the First Family declaring publicly during at a press conference on Wednesday that it had no problems working with the opposition in a coalition.

Mr Mutsvangwa said after looking at the matrix of the Zimbabwean political scene today, the traditional enemies of the party were no longer what they were focusing on.

“We may have had differences with the MDC in the past but when they came on board to write the Constitution with us together and they are in Parliament, they are behaving as a loyal opposition to Zimbabwe and most of the time actually are championing the welfare of war veterans. We have no particular misgivings about them.”