War Veterans Demand To Be Issued With Degrees
Veterans of the Zimbabwe liberation war are demanding that the Zimbabwe government issue them with honourary degrees as a recognition for succeeding in waging war against Smith’s Rhodesia government.
Addressing Mashonaland East war veterans and Zanu PF supporters in Marondera, War Veterans Association Secretary General Douglas Mahiya said the veterans would be happy to play a leading role in educating the country.
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“We succeed in educating people about the revolution and that land belongs to them and we succeeded and we got independence,” the secretary general said.
“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 added; “War veterans do not associate themselves with failure politically, we associate ourselves with success and progress.”
“So, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube must come up with a policy that says if a company capacitates a farm of a war veteran with farming equipment and inputs, it will be exempted from paying tax,” Mahiya continued, earning much applause from the audience.
“If a company pays for war veterans‘ medical bills, it will have a tax rebate. We don’t lose anything as a nation but we would have complied with our Constitution which says we will honour and respect our war veterans.
“Respect can only be a benefit when such things are happening, just like someone buying me (Mahiya) a car and your company gets a rebate.”
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War Veterans Demand To Be Issued With Degrees