Veteran politician and war veteran Margaret Dongo said she went into opposition politics to fight for liberation struggle ideals that the ruling ZANU PF was failing or neglecting to champion.
She told Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube on the platform In Conversation with Trevor, that she had tried, and failed, to change ZANU PF from within by being outspoken and critical of the ruling party’s policies.
Dongo was eventually expelled from ZANU PF during the Robert Mugabe era.
Responding to a question by Trevor Ncube who wanted to understand how she managed to get into opposition politics when it was considered dangerous to go against Mugabe, Dongo said:
True I did, but it was a very hard decision to make.
I had no choice because there is something that I want to make clear, you know my love for the country, in terms of Margaret Dongo, the former liberation fighter, what comes first in my life is my country.
So probably it is because of the experience that I got from a tender age, worse off during the armed struggle and after, that it forced me to actually go into opposition politics.
The idea was not to destroy the country, but the idea was to continue to fight for the ideals of the liberation struggle.
Among many things, liberation fighters fought for the establishment of one-man-one-vote as the basis of government in Zimbabwe; and the elimination of oppression in all forms.