ZIMBABWEANS welcome efforts by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government to get rid of criminals.
However, the blitz on such behaviour should be extended to cover all corrupt elements in our society, including members of Mnangagwa’s Lacoste faction and no one should be above board.
As raised by MDC-T chief whip, Innocent Gonese in Parliament recently, Mnangagwa should explain why the army is being deployed in the streets to do a job which should normally be done by the police.
Zanu PF’s controversial Bulawayo district youth league leader Magura Charumbira, a self-confessed Lacoste factionalist, who has extorted money from vendors in Bulawayo for many years continues to wreak havoc, boasting that he is untouchable because he is one of the people who triggered Mnangagwa’s rise to the presidency.
Charumbira has over the years ordered informal traders to pay $2 protection fees to the ruling party, to avoid being harassed by municipal police prior to the blitz against illegal vendors.
On November 27, 2017, he upped the tempo and ordered Makokoba residents to attend a meeting at Davis Hall, which is Zanu PF’s provincial headquarters.
Many now believe Magura enjoys the blessings of top government officials because he has not been arrested.
Mnangagwa, therefore, seems to resemble his mentor Robert Mugabe, who would preach non-tolerance to violence in one breath, but whisper to his security team to deal ruthlessly with his opponents.
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Zimbabwe needs a real new beginning in which it gets a new President outside Zanu PF. If Charumbira has the audacity to frog-march people to Zanu PF rallies now, what will become of him when official election campaigns begin?
More worrying is the fact that Mnangagwa has decided to include in his Cabinet military personnel and other people who are reported to have been involved in corruption.
I am worried by such dubious leadership and demand that such duplicity be addressed. If the President made some rushed not-so-well-thought out decisions and if he is well-meaning, it is not too late for him to re-think and act right.
