Zanu PF’s Youth leader Kudzai Chipanga said they are prepared to die defending Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe against threats by army commander General Constantino Chiwenga.
This follows a warning from Zimbabwe’s military that they will intervene if infighting in the ruling party, Zanu PF that culminated in President Mugabe firing VP Mnangagwa continues.
Chipanga who was speaking at a press conference on November 14 accused Chiwenga of misreading Zimbabwe’s constitution and demanded that the military account for the $15 billion in diamond revenue they stole with former VP Mnangagwa.
Transcript of Kudzai Chipanga’s press statement
We as Zanu PF Youth league are a lion which has awakened and found its voice, therefore we will not sit idly and fold our hands whilst cheap potshots and threats are made against the legitimate and popularly elected leader of the revolutionary party Zanu PF and Zimbabwe, His Excellency the head of state, government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Comrade RG Mugabe.
The selective reading of the Constitution of Zimbabwe by Cde Chiwenga whilst ignoring this imporant part cannot go unchallenged as we all know Section 208(2) which makes the inteference of the armed forces in civilian matters illegal.
Section 21 of the same constitution again forbids the army and security forces confining them to the barracks where they belong during times of peace.
Defending the revolution, our leader and President is an ideal we live for and if need be it is a principle we are prepared to die for.
We are totally against the bulk of the press statement issued by General Chiwenga yesterday. We believe that the views he exposed are his personal opinions and not the collective view of the security forces as a whole.
As Commander of the Defence Force Cd Chiwenga, we await a full report on the wehereabouts of the missing 15 billion dollars as the army never accounts for the revenhe after extraction. This money would go a long way in alleviating the obtaining harships the solders are facing and improve their wealth and morale. Chiwenga cannot have his cake and eat it too.
He also cannot benefit from his own mishief and misdeeds in that together with the former Minister of Defence now fugitive Cde Dambudzo Mnangagwa they dismally failed in the stewardship of revenue streams that flowed from diamond concesssions allocated to the Defence forces whose sole purpose was cushioning the Defence forces from economic harships. A day will come when those responsible will have to account to the people.
