War Collaborators Likely To Be Stricken Off Govt Pay Role; Await Vetting

Published: 2016 June 21 01:23:45 (5287 Views)

More than 200 000 war collaborators are expected to be vetted soon once the necessary legal instruments that seek to align the Constitution have been enacted, Parliament heard last week.

Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, former political detainees and Restrictees Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, said that would culminate in the determination of what they should get in monthly pensions and other related benefits.

He was responding to a question from Manicaland Proportional Representative Cde Lucia Chitura (Zanu-PF) who wanted to know when vetting for detainees not previously vetted would take place.

Minister Dube said there had been a lot of political statements and growing agitation about the issue of war collaborators as well.

“The legal position is that war collaborators cannot be vetted or registered before they are defined in laws. Their vetting therefore has to wait until the current alignment of laws is completed. My Ministry estimates that for planning purposes, there could be around 200 000 war collaborators when their vetting is finally done,” Minister Dube said.

“We also estimate that they could have 49 000 widows and 40 000 children who would be eligible for Government support. In drafting the law and the constitution, we are carrying out and are seriously looking at the range of benefits that could be legislated and the impact of such benefits on the fiscus and the taxpayer.”

He said it ought to be noted that it was not easy to conduct vetting for war collaborators given that it comes after 36 years.

On vetting for detainees, Minister Dube said the process was a continuous administrative function for his ministry.

Minister Dube advised the House that his Ministry was at an advanced stage of aligning laws that he superintended to the new Constitution of Zimbabwe.

“My Ministry administers the War Veterans Act, the Ex-Political Detainees and Restrictees Act, the National Heroes Act and the War Victims Compensation Act. This alignment will result in a single Act of Parliament covering all veterans of the liberation struggle, who are defined in the Constitution in Sections 23 and 84, as those who fought, those who assisted the fighters and those who were detained for political reasons during the liberation struggle,” he said.

“The new Act will also cover categories of veterans, which fall under my Ministry’s jurisdiction but were previously excluded from the law. Specifically, we are talking about the nationalists, war collaborators and the former refugees, who you are calling non-combatant cadres in our legal drafting.

“The actual drafting started on June 13, 2016 and we hope to have completed this by mid July, 2016 for onward processing through Cabinet and the Legislature for purposes of enactment,” he added.

- Herald

Tags: ZanuPF, finance, war, collaborators, vetting, ,

You might also want to read this

War Collaborators Likely To Be Stricken Off Govt Pay Role; Await Vetting

You might also want to read this

You May Like These Videos

Comments

There are no comments.

Get Zim Metro Updates Alerts

Big Reads