The veterans of Zimbabwe’s war of independence have demanded that the government award them honorary degrees for their role in the liberation struggle.
The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya expressed the ex-combatants’ latest demand while addressing Mashonaland East war veterans and Zanu PF supporters in Marondera over the weekend. He said:
We succeed in educating people about the revolution and that land belongs to them and we succeeded and we got independence.
We were told if you face resistance from the Smith regime soldiers, here is the gun, fight them and we succeeded. The third one was to utilise land, we succeeded, and this is where we are today.
My thinking now is the government must award us degrees because we went to war and learnt principles of the revolution and we made it.
Mahiya also called for the government to consider giving tax exemption to companies that take care of the liberation fighters’ welfare or conduct business with entities owned by war veterans.
Here are some of the demands made by war veterans in recent years:
- University degrees
- Tax rebates for their suppliers
- Pension
- Medical and dental care
- Educational Assistance
- Funeral Assistance
- Gratuity
- Clear categorization of the Veterans of the Liberation Struggle members
- Tax and Duty exemption
- Quota system in Parliament and all government institutions and agencies
- Automatic promotion of serving veterans of the liberation struggle in State institutions
- Diplomatic passports
- Bravery medals and new identity cards
- Compensation of war victims and veterans of the liberation struggle living with disabilities
Yah! Yah! Looking at 1 and 8; Asi Comrade nyika ngaipedze nzara first and igone kuita clean elections! Pa 8 munhu wese i war veteran, KKKK’ asi grading tinobvumirana!
You forgot about jobs for their children without the requirement for qualifications. A good idea would be a special hospital for them, where their children can be employed as unqualified doctors to treat them, particularly in the field of brain surgery.
Nxaaaaaaaaa this mahiya guy must just drop dead already…. as a citizen of this country I would like to demand that all these so called war vets go to hell so that we might shit on their graves…