Deputy Minister of Defence and War Veterans Victor Matemadanda has said that the government is willing to finance income-generating projects for war veterans from the former Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra). Matemadanda, however, said that government is not willing to give the war veterans cash payments because they recipients may blow the money and leave nothing for their families. Said Matemadanda,
Some of you sometime got Z$50 000 and cannot show what you did with that money. If given the money, what if you die? Will your children benefit? I will not tolerate the idea of saying you want money. What we want is for you to have projects which will benefit your children even after you are gone.
Zipra Veterans Association spokesperson Buster Magwizi called on the government to return all properties which were confiscated from Zapu during the Gukurahundi period. Said Magwizi,
We have numerous valuable properties which we bought with our own money at independence and were taken by government in the 1980s. We still want them back. The deputy minister is talking about projects to empower war veterans, as Zipra we say why can’t they give us back our properties and assist us with capital?
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