Ex-Minister Matinenga a ‘Heartless Black Rhodesian’ – Say War Veterans
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Tags: Chris Mutsvangwa, Eric Matinenga, Rhodesia, Sobusa Gula Ndebele, Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, Zipra, ZNLWVA
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War veterans have hit out at former cabinet minister and Harare lawyer Eric Matinenga, disparaging him as a “heartless black Rhodesian” after he criticised security services commanders meddling in politics.
Douglas Mahiya, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) spokesman, said Matinenga remarks prove that he does not appreciate the role played by the country’s liberators.
The ZNLWVA secretary for communications claimed that Matinenga chose to join Ian Douglas Smith’s army so that he could “effectively play his part in eliminating fellow countrymen”.
Matinenga was constitutional affairs minister in the last coalition government.
He angered the former fighters after telling a recent Harare meeting that security services chiefs meddling in civilian affairs were being “selfish and greedy”.
The former MDC-T minister further accused the Zanu PF-led government of failing to confine soldiers to their barracks.
“In so far as our security services are concerned, I think it’s just business as usual. Nothing has really changed,” Matinenga said.
“They conduct themselves in the same way they used to, whether really there is a new constitution which makes it otherwise.
He added, “I ask myself this question, why. I think there are three reasons, one is greed, the second one is selfishness, the third one is fear. You don’t have to address them in that order.”
However, Mahiya said the remarks were not surprising as Matinenga “joined racist Ian Smith’s Rhodesia light infantry in 1977”.
“This was well after his university peers like Chris Mutsvangwa and Sobusa Gula Ndebele had sacrificed law studies to go join ZANLA,” said Mahiya in an interview with NewZimbabwe.com last week.
“His role of military dishonour entailed combat against other fellow school mates from both St Faiths Rusape and St Augustine’s Penhalonga.
“He has a visceral hatred for ZANLA and ZIPRA – the core of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. What a churlish and callous black Rhodesian!
“Thank you to those who fed him so he could end up as a government minister in liberated Zimbabwe.”
