THE infamous Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, famed for insulting the poor while spending lavishly in the face of hunger, would have gone green with envy had she been able to live in modern-day Zimbabwe.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Antoinette is accused of having told starving peasants in France that they should “eat cake” if they had no bread.
In a country where thousands of people are facing an uncertain future owing to an El Nino-induced drought and massive food shortages, the government has turned a deaf ear.
Instead of mobilising resources to feed the starving people in Manicaland, Midlands, Matabeleland and Masvingo, the Zanu PF-led government stands accused of spending millions of dollars on useless events meant to tighten its grip on power.
Since the beginning of the year, over $5 million has been wasted on unfruitful events.
Millions of dollars have been mobilised from government coffers, struggling companies, parastatals and the few remaining white farmers to fund rallies, birthdays and solidarity marches, which opposition political parties have dismissed as wasteful and insensitive.
Wednesday’s “million-man march” reportedly gobbled nearly $600 000 in fuel, accommodation, food and transport, among other things.
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The event, which drew tens of thousands of people from all over the country, was another picture perfect example of Zanu PF’s appetite for lavish spending in the face of poverty.
President Robert Mugabe and his wife First Lady Grace have been at the centre of this massive spending which has laid into taxpayers’ money.
In February, the Zanu PF youth league raised, through government institutions, $800 000 to fund Mugabe’s 92nd birthday celebrations ironically in drought-stricken Masvingo province.
Mugabe was showered with a monstrous 92kg cake, among other gifts, which pushed the cost of the celebrations close to $1 million.
Months later, Zanu PF was at it again, spending $2 million at a three-hour war veteran’s indaba with Mugabe. This time, the money was squeezed from Treasury.
War Veterans minister Tshinga Dube confirmed the meeting gobbled $2 million, which was supposed to pay for school fees of war veterans’ children.
It has also emerged that government was funding the First Lady’s “Meet the People” rallies.
Grace flies to the rallies using the presidential helicopter accompanied by another plane, where she donates tractors, clothes and food, among other goodies.
The rallies were estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The last rally Grace held was in Chiweshe in February, where she lashed out at war veterans and Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, accusing him of plotting to topple Mugabe from power.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) implored Zanu PF to prioritise people’s livelihoods ahead of individual political interests. “These so called ‘Meet the People’ rallies have become a platform for reaffirming President Mugabe as the supreme leader of Zanu PF as well as a platform to denigrate his perceived opponents within the ruling party and surely government cannot be seen to be splashing millions on events that do not necessarily serve the national interest,” the human rights watchdog said.
CiZC said the $600 000 spent on the “million-man march” event, among others, came at a time Mugabe had himself declared a state of emergency to feed an estimated three million Zimbabweans in urgent need of food aid.
“A state of emergency implies that Zimbabwe needs aid to feed its people, yet millions are splashed on political business meant to entrench ruling party officials’ stay in power,” the group said.
“Events within Zanu PF are a cause for alarm as they have proved that focus among the ruling party officials is no longer on the need to deliver on their 2013 election promises, but to entrench their stay in political offices.”
