The Sunday News
“EQUALITY, respect and assistance.”
This is what widows of fallen heroes in Zimbabwe are still clamouring for 35 years after independence and many years after their husbands passed away.
Widows of fallen heroes have fallen on hard times despite the immense participation by their husbands during the long road to independence. Most of these widows are failing to access simple things in life and are feeling short-changed by responsible authorities.
Mrs Sikhululekile Ndlovu, the Bulawayo provincial chairperson for the Widows and Widowers of War Veterans Association, said they were not asking for much from Government but assistance for the most basic of things that they need for their day to day sustenance.
“Many of us, widows, have bills that we have to pay. We are failing to settle debts with the city council and we are not living comfortably because we are always in debt. Right now houses belonging to widows owe city council and the council is always threatening to disconnect us for non-payment,” she said.
Mrs Ndlovu said the bills may not be expensive monthly but the fact that they have been accumulating over the years made it even harder for them as the debts had ballooned to alarming figures.
Widows earn $113 as a pension and they say this is far from enough to make it through the month.
“What can one do with such a pension? We have no other source of income and we are falling to balance things off,” Mrs Ndlovu lamented.
One of the biggest challenges widows face is that of educating their children. She said many had pulled out of school as they could hardly afford school fees.
“Our children are out of school as we speak; we cannot afford the tuition fees that we owe and we have to endure the agony of watching them wake up and go to bed without doing anything meaningful with their lives,” she said.
This, she said, had given birth to rowdy children due to lack of education.
“Umntwana kakhuzeki nxa engafundanga. They spend the day doing nothing significant with their lives and it is hard to try and control them. They end up drinking too much alcohol and being involved in many social ills,” she said.
Mrs Ndlovu said watching the children of gallant sons and daughters of the soil who died fighting for the liberation of Zimbabwe waste their lives because they did not get a chance to attain an education was a very hard and bitter pill to swallow.
The widows are appealing that their benefits be raised to levels of surviving war veterans who are said to be earning $205 per month saying it was better than what they were earning.
“We cannot ask for more because we understand the current situation that our Government is in. Government is also trying to raise funds for other projects so we will be reasonable and ask to be raised to the level of surviving veterans,” she pleaded.
On the land question, she said most widows whose husbands died before they were vetted were finding the going tough as they have not been allocated any land. The few that have benefited only have the land and no farming implements.
However, some widows and widowers cried foul alleging favouritism in the placement of tombstones on graves.
They said that graves of people who died before 1999 did not have tombstones while those of people who died much later had tombstones already.
The newly appointed Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees said the creation of a ministry would address many of the challenges widows and war veterans were facing.
“The presence of this ministry will see their concerns being looked into as we have an operational system now. I acknowledge there have been many predicaments and gaps in policies concerning this group of people so now we have the capacity to deal with them,” Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa said.
Cde Mutsvangwa said Government had over the years been preoccupied with their concerns and would soon roll out a programme to address the challenges.
Asked on the issue of laying tombstones on the graves of some fallen heroes in the various provinces and increasing pensions, Cde Mutsvangwa said resources were scarce.
“It all boils down to resources. The Government is operating on a tight budget as you see we have even cut civil servants bonuses. However, we are making efforts to address this and soon we will find ways to ensure the war veterans and widows get better money,” he promised.
He said Government would ensure that there was no discrimination in the placing of tombstones.
Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, a Zanu-PF Politburo member, also weighed in on the issue and said some of the tombstones were placed by the families of the fallen heroes as Government was not in a position to put stones on all graves.
Concerning the issue of education, he said it was mandatory that orphaned children be afforded a chance to go to school.
“Educating the orphans of fallen heroes and war veterans is a priority. The education ministry has to provide that assistance to them as they are deserving children and they should not be denied that opportunity. Widows have to be honoured by having their children educated, that is support that they are entitled to,” he said.
Cde Ndlovu said while their fathers may have departed, the orphans were the living epitomes of their father’s sacrifices and as such, they had to be honoured by getting an education.
“When the nation goes for heroes’ celebrations what are they celebrating? We have to celebrate the lives of these fallen people by assisting the living widows through helping their children,” he said.
Cde Ndlovu said education was not a question that had to be debated but simply awarded to the deserving children.
He expressed discontent, saying that not much had been done to cushion the widows of war veterans from the economic hardships and that they had to benefit from indigenisation too.
Cde Mutsvangwa, however, took a swipe at war veterans and widows saying they should desist from being welfare cases and be more economically active.
“Our war veterans have to move from being welfare cases, not that it is bad but they have to play an active role in economic recovery as they are people who have the ability to contribute to that. The fact that they aided the nation to win the liberation struggle means they were visionaries and strategists so we have to harness that potential that is within them,” he emphasised.
He said the knowledge they had from the days of the liberation struggle would assist the nation in the economic war that it is facing.
Cde Mutsvangwa said Zanu-PF was on a recovery path where they now had direction in the party so they were going to make sound changes in the whole system of governance especially concerning the welfare of war veterans.
This, he said, would be done by following the agenda of Zim Asset and he promised to make Zimbabwe proud once again like what they did in 1980.
In early 2000, a war veterans’ board was formed and its functions were that of taking care of widows and their children and dealing with war veterans’ problems but the board was never properly co-ordinated.
A hero’s status is a high honour to any Zimbabwean citizen for serving the country. When a citizen is laid to rest they are either awarded a national or liberation hero status.
They are assisted in the burial of the hero and also receive monthly payouts for the widows and school fees assistance.
