Staff Reporter

Government has commenced the second phase of implementing the Veterans of the Struggle of the Liberation Act (Chapter 17:12), which calls for the vetting of all war veterans, collaborators, non-combatant cadres and ex-political prisoners, detainees and restrictees.

Speaking through a Press Statement, Chairperson of the Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Board, Major General (Rtd) Gibson Mashingaidze urged all veterans of the liberation struggle to report to vetting centres in the areas they operated as this is the final mop-up exercise.

“The general outline of the vetting exercise is that Non-Combatant Cadres and remnants of the Ex-Political Prisoners, Detainees and Restrictees are being vetted at provincial level in all the 10 provinces. Non-Combatant Cades are being vetted by War Veterans familiar with various transit camps.    

“Vetting of War-Collaborators should be conducted by War-Veterans who operated in various parts of the country during the Liberation Struggle.  This means War Collaborators should be in the areas they operated during the Liberation Struggle,” said Major General Mashingaidze.

The Major General bemoaned the surge in numbers of veterans not previously registered who are turning up for the exercise and causing delays to the whole process.

“Our vetting teams are doing their best to cope with the workload, finishing at about 2300hrs at night.  The numbers are still high but we expect the figures to decline as we proceed with the exercise.

“The exercise has generally been slow so far but we expect improvement in the speed of vetting in the coming days.  However, any increase in the speed of vetting process should not result in non-deserving individuals being accredited,” Mashingaidze said.

Major General Mashingaidze, commended the President for implementing the exercise that had dragged on for forty-two years after independence and recognising the veterans of the liberation struggle.  He thanked Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri for remaining steadfast in the implementation of the Act.