Nelson Chamisa recently received a major boost on Saturday when Zipra veterans threw their weight behind his campaign, a few days before the 2018 General elections.

Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa for the first time, appeared at an MDC Alliance rally to be addressed by party president Nelson Chamisa.

The war veterans were part of Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa’s entourage at Chamisa’s rally at Bulawayo’s White City Stadium, where the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo’s son, Sibangilizwe, gave a solidarity message.

Ndumiso Dabengwa has publicly backed the youthful MDC Alliance candidate in a move analysts say will give the coalition the liberation war credentials whose absence was viewed as a disadvantage for the opposition in previous elections.

The former Zipra intelligence supremo said Zimbabweans must show the same spirit they had in November last year when protests forced former president Robert Mugabe to resign.

“We showed solidarity,” he said. “We showed we are one people. We made it very clear that those who had been given the mandate to administer the affairs of this country had completely failed.”

Dabengwa said Zanu PF had no capacity to solve Zimbabwe’s problems, which it created through misrule.

“After (Mugabe was removed) some people said that was the voice of God, but some of us said this is an opportunity we must seize to correct everything wrong in this country and make a fresh start,” he said. “This is what it is all about, we want to bring order in this country.

“Zanu PF is incapable of bringing change. It has failed dismally.”

Dabengwa said Zapu members would vote for Chamisa for the presidency.