FEARED Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has threatened to brutally punish a group of war veterans who issued a damning statement rejecting his leadership and accusing him of corruption, divisive behaviour, dictatorship and running the economy aground in 36 years of misrule.
In a chilling speech at the Zanu PF headquarters yesterday, Mugabe threatened liberation war type reprisals to those linked to the damning communiqué.
The Zanu PF leader said he had set up a team to investigate those who originated and distributed the communiqué, and once found, they would be punished severely.
“We selected leaders in the party to investigate so that we know who wrote and circulated the communiqué and we will punish them in a very big way,” Mugabe said.
He narrated how they dug holes underground as cells for enemies during the liberation struggle, like burrows for rodents, as a form of punishment, saying the same fate would meet those behind the communiqué.
“During the war, we would punish defectors severely … we kept them underground like rats, in bunkers … it is the same thing we are going to do here in independent Zimbabwe. They must taste jail,” Mugabe said.
Mugabe also effectively dissolved the war veterans executive led by Christopher Mutsvangwa and said he would facilitate a congress for the election of a new leadership of the former fighters.
The Zanu PF leader openly bragged that police belonged to Zanu PF and would be used to crush any protests and his enemies, especially church leaders, who were wading into politics.
“The police are ours and they should see to it that these small party protesters are thrown into jail so that they can taste the food there,” he said.
- NewsDay
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