War Veterans Say They Are Entitled To University Degrees

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.

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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:

1. University degrees
2. Tax rebates for their suppliers
3. Pension
4. Medical and dental care
5. Educational Assistance
6. Funeral Assistance
7. Gratuity
8. Clear categorization of the Veterans of the Liberation Struggle members
9. Tax and Duty exemption
10. Quota system in Parliament and all government institutions and agencies
11. Automatic promotion of serving veterans of the liberation struggle in State institutions
12. Diplomatic passports
13. Bravery medals and new identity cards
14. Compensation of war victims and veterans of the liberation struggle living with disabilities

More: NewZimbabwe.com