AT LEAST 100 Zanu PF supporters working at the multi-million dollar conference centre in Gweru have received maize seed sourced through the $20 million Presidential Farming Inputs Scheme to motivate them to complete the venue ahead of the party’s 13th national conference this week. REPORT BY BLESSED MHLANGA STAFF REPORTER
Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is spearheading the project, told President Robert Mugabe during a tour of the facility on Saturday that the party had set aside a seed package for the construction workers who are reportedly “working round the clock” to complete the buildings.
The contract for the conference was awarded to a Chinese firm.
“The seed which everyone is going to get when you leave came from the President as a way to motivate you to work even harder to complete this project in time for the conference,” Mnangagwa, who is Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs told the workers during Mugabe’s tour of the centre.
“We employed members of our party only to come and work on this facility because it is theirs. Therefore, they are determined to finish it just before conference starts on December 6.
“On December 4 and 5 delegates will be arriving and going to their lodgings, so we will still have those days to work around the clock.”
Ironically, workers at the site briefly downed tools last month in protest against inhuman treatment at the hands of the Chinese contractors.
The 6 000-seater conference centre will have, among other things, broadband and Wi-Fi facilities and seven plasma television sets to be installed in and outside the main hall.
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Midlands Development Trust chairperson and Zanu PF Midlands deputy chairman Larry Mavhima said of the facility: “TelOne has already installed telephone lines, broadband and Wi-Fi which will be connected once the Presidential and Secretarial suites are complete.
“We are getting by because this is our country. We don’t expect anyone to come and do it for us, especially those who are interested in taking our wealth. This is going to be better than having our conference in a tent. We have media centres and plasma screens will be placed around the conference facility.”
Over 15 huge white tents have been pitched, while roads leading to the winery-turned-conference centre have been resurfaced.
Mugabe, who climbed up and down the staircase with the aid of his security team, described the facility as a symbol of resistance to the illegal sanctions imposed against the country by the West.
