Source: Discipline is key ….as war vet pays tribute to President Xi – herald
Gibson Nyikadzino
Zimpapers Politics Hub
ZIMBABWE’s development trajectory will have an everlasting impact when the younger generation is directed towards an order of discipline and appropriate political education to keep them focused and determined to see the country flourish, a veteran of the liberation struggle has said.
Cde Muneri Rex Chakwana, who was among the 17 war veterans who last November wrote a letter to China’s President Xi Jinping thanking China for facilitating their military training in the 1960s and 1970s, said the youths should draw inspiration from the principles of political education and discipline they acquired back then.
He lauded President Xi for instilling a culture of discipline, citing it as the catalyst for China’s remarkable socio-economic transformation.
President Xi replied to the war veterans’ letter on Wednesday which was handed over by Chinese Ambassador Zhou Ding.
In an interview on the sidelines of the handover ceremony of President Xi’s response, Cde Chakwana said while he had no authority to speak for the young generation, he remarked that if they failed to acquire discipline necessary to work for the country and themselves, they would end up in a trap of stagnation and disorderliness.
“Discipline is a common denominator that cuts across all age groups and generations. If you do not have discipline, you will never do anything in life. Our generation never departed from the discipline and political education that we received in the 1960s and 1970s. This is so because disciple is a state of any order.
“The knowledge that we received back then and what we were drilled to is different from what the current generation is having. We made sacrifices because we had the discipline to do so,” Cde Chakwana said.
He said the political education and military training received in China formed the basis of the values that informed the Nzira Dzemasoja principles, which were premised on discipline.
The principles guided how freedom fighters had to behave, their interactions with the masses and issues of morality.
“This brings the greatness of the worldly support which was rendered upon us militarily and educationally, carrying to memory the discipline and guidelines on how to behave as freedom fighters, not to take away from the masses their property and to return back whatever we took from them.
“We were also taught the discipline to pay for whatever we purchased, not to abuse captured enemy prisoners and not indulging in adultery in the armed struggle.”
He thanked Zimbabwe’s liberation war veterans, both the departed and the living, for their sacrifices and contributions to Zimbabwe’s independence.
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