Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai has expressed dismay on the current Zimbabwe National Army drive to recruit soldiers saying it is part of a ploy to beef up instruments of terror ahead of the 2018 plebiscite.
ZNA is currently recruiting soldiers and this appears to have startled MDC-T who are skeptical of the intentions of such a massive recruitment especially at a time when the Ministry of Finance is struggling to raise salaries for civil servants.
“As a peace – loving social democratic political party, the MDC is alarmed by the fact that the ongoing massive army recruitment exercise is deliberately targeted at building the Zanu PF regime’s “war arsenal” in preparation for the 2018 harmonized elections. The war – mongering and paranoid Zanu PF regime has never hesitated to unleash its security apparatus on unarmed Zimbabweans each time that the regime is faced with an impending humiliating electoral loss.
“This is precisely what happened during the farcical Presidential election run – off in June 2008 when armed soldiers and other security operatives were unleashed in urban and rural areas and in the process orchestrating an unprecedented orgy of violence and thuggery against peace – loving civilians,” said Obert Gutu, MDC-T spokesperson.
He sensationally claimed that the recruitment of soldiers was a realization by Zanu PF of an electoral defeat in 2018.
“Hundreds of people were brutally murdered, thousands of women were raped and thousands of homesteads were also destroyed as the brutal Zanu PF terror machinery went into overdrive,” he said.
Gutu believes it doesn’t make sense to recruit soldiers when the government was failing to pay those who are on ground due to an economic crisis.
“The MDC is deeply dismayed and appalled by reports confirming that the ZNA is currently recruiting thousands of new recruits to join the national army. At a time when the national economy is in comatose and also the government is struggling to timeously pay the salaries of civil servants, it is completely disheartening and patently irrational for the ZNA to embark on a massive nationwide recruitment exercise,” he said.
Zanu PF Spokesperson, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo could not be reached for comment.
