Buhera South legislator, Joseph Chinotimba has pleaded with the finance minister Professor Mthuli Ncube to look in to the welfare of war veterans in his supplementary budget saying most of them are wallowing in poverty.
Making his contribution in parliament on Tuesday, Chinotimba said war veterans deserve to be properly paid as they suffered during the liberation struggle.
“Hon. Minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube if you had experienced the pain of living in the bush, you will discover that it was not easy.
“Let us not just talk about giving war veterans without actually anything tangible on the ground, there is need to give war veterans money with value,” said Chinotimba.
He added that war veterans are important in safeguarding peace and defending the country during war.
“Our job as war veterans is to defend our country when a country goes to war, you would discover that there is no need for training new soldiers because we are here to defend our country
“War veterans should be given money because ZWL$300 billion is not a lot of money. If it were US$300 billion, then we would appreciate but this is local currency” said Buhera South MP
He further pleaded for war veterans to be paid in United States dollars saying most of them rely on the black market as they do not have access to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction system.
“People talk of the black market and if you give war veterans whatever amount, they go to the black market because the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s auction system does not allow individuals to bid foreign currency. War veterans do not have companies. The companies that we mentioned are not in existence,” said Chinotimba.
