War veterans’ leader dies

The death of Zimbabwean war veterans’ leader Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi on Monday has left a vacuum within the movement he had come to symbolise, analysts told IRIN. Hunzvi, who led the majority faction of the veterans’ association that served as the political “shock troops” of the ruling party, died in hospital on Monday, state radio reported. His group spearheaded the violent invasions of white-owned commercial farms last year, before turning to an urban campaign that purportedly championed workers’ rights but degenerated into intimidation and extortion. “The man (Hunzvi) has caused so much mayhem, he deserves no respect at all,” opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told IRIN. He described Hunzvi’s death as a loss to President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF rather than the country. “It has been a serious setback for them (the party). These people (the veterans) know no law and order like Mugabe and on that basis have caused a lot of suffering among ordinary Zimbabweans.” The veterans played a key role in the violence that marred Zimbabwe’s legislative elections last year, and were expected to replicate that strategy in the urban strongholds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in next year’s presidential poll. “It’s not the war veterans’ it’s Mugabe who has to fill the void,” Tsvangirai said. “Unless they (ZANU) can get another leader I can see them disappearing as a political force.” The cause of Hunzvi’s death was not immediately given by the state media on Monday. He was believed to have been suffering from cerebral malaria after collapsing at a hotel in Zimbabwe’s second city Bulawayo last month. According to Claver Gozho, a spokesman for the rival Zimbabwe Liberator’s Platform that accused Hunzvi of subverting the goals of the liberation war: “There is jubilation in many quarters that he is dead, he organised much of the violence on farms and more recently in urban areas, he will not be missed, not even I think, by his own people.” Senior African researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, Sanusha Naidu, pointed out that there were reports of a “strained relationship” between some senior politicians and Hunzvi. Although winning his seat and contributing to ZANU-PF’s relative success in the countryside, Hunzvi had not been rewarded with a cabinet post as expected after last June’s legislative elections. Naidu told IRIN the issue was now who within the veterans’ association has the “charisma and personality” to succeed Hunzvi. She noted that while the government has looked to the veterans to officially serve as the army’s reserve force, and pushed for their inclusion in the police, recently there had been indications of unease between the government and the veterans. Last month the authorities cracked down on the business invasions, while groups of veterans on the farms recently complained over non-payment of allowances. “For the past couple of weeks we’ve seen the war vets raising a red flag over certain issues in Zimbabwe. That raises a very interesting question - what is the relationship between the war veterans and Mugabe after Hunzvi’s death?” Naidu said. “There were splits within the government with some politicians thinking they could get value out of Hunzvi and others seeing the damage he was causing,” military analyst Martin Rupiya told IRIN. He suggested that reports that the police had recently impounded vehicles parked outside Hunzvi’s house suggested that Hunzvi “was beginning to lose control”. Hunzvi, a medical doctor, rose to fame in 1997 when he led the veterans’ in a dispute with the government over compensation payments that forced Mugabe to make a substantial and unbudgeted one-off award. Hunzvi, however, was at the centre of a scandal over the fraudulent abuse of the veteran’s compensation fund. But despite that apparent setback, his fiery rhetoric and fierce loyalty to a government he had once threatened, meant that by early 2000 Hunzvi’s veterans were a powerful force. For more details, please see: IRIN Focus on the War Veterans, 6 February 2001 http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zimbabwe/20010206.phtml