A GROUP of human rights activists, who last week stormed a top Harare hotel demanding that Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko vacates the facility to save taxpayers’ money, has threatened to continue picketing the hotel until he has left.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Mphoko has been staying in the presidential suite at Rainbow Towers Hotel with his family since his appointment as Vice-President in December last year, arguing the State had not yet secured him suitable accommodation in Harare.
“We will be giving out fliers throughout the country for ordinary Zimbabweans to join in our call for the government to distribute State resources equitably. We will also literally be demonstrating at Rainbow Towers, day and night until the VP relocates to the available State residences for the executives,” one of the activists, Tendai Lynnette Mudehwe, said.
The activists said the money paid for Mphoko’s accommodation should have been channelled towards underfunded sectors such as health and education.
“Patriotic former VPs, like our late Father Zimbabwe Cde Joshua Nkomo, lived in one such house. Also the late Vice-President John Landa Nkomo was so humble to the extent that he resided in his private home. It’s a first in Zimbabwe that a Vice-President takes residence in a luxurious Hotel,” the statement read.
“The recent 2016 National Budget presented by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa reflects a broke government that cannot provide for basic needs of the citizens.
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“The money spent on the VP’s hotel bill could be channelled towards health, education, food security, support of orphaned, vulnerable children and make a significant contribution to improve service delivery.”
They vowed that no amount of harassment, arrests and unlawful detention would dampen their spirit of advocating for good governance in Zimbabwe.
