BY EVERSON MUSHAVA/MOSES MATENGA
OPPOSITION MDC leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday took a swipe at President Emmerson Mnangagwa over a video that went viral on social media of him feeding his fish at his Kwekwe farm at the weekend, saying the Zanu PF leader had misplaced priorities at a time millions of Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid.
The United Nations estimates that 7,7 million citizens are in urgent need of food aid, while US$300 million is required to supply some 240 000 tonnes of handouts.
The MDC president said he was going into the Christmas holiday depressed knowing that millions of Zimbabweans will be without food, fuel, power and freedom.
“Any serious and credible leader’s core business is the well-being and interest of the people they lead. On that score, I walk into the Christmas holiday depressed, challenged and burdened because my thoughts, mind and conscience are with the people of Zimbabwe who are suffering. They are suffering because we have deprived them of happiness and merrymaking. They are without cash, without fuel, without electricity, without water and even without freedom,” Chamisa said.
He said it was a difficult period for Zimbabweans, and he hoped that “this will be a vivid reminder of the urgency of our situation, the extraordinary circumstances”.
“I wish I could have the luxury of feeding my fish at the farm with my friends, but I can’t. It is just impossible. We must feed the people not the fish,” Chamisa said, in apparent reference to a video that featured Mnangagwa, MDC leader Thokozani Khupe and other Political Actors’ Dialogue (Polad) platform leaders at Mnangagwa’s farm.
Mnangagwa met Polad members at his farm at the weekend.
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Chamisa said he sympathised with the people of Zimbabwe who will miss the usual delicacies usually associated with the festive season.
“I sympathise with the people and feel with them, the definition of a sensitive leader. The way Zimbabwe is suffering, high school fees, dysfunctional hospitals; in other countries, people are busy having their best meals, their delicacies on Christmas and visiting best places. But in Zimbabwe, the situation is different. I was in Germany, I could feel the sense of Christmas, but that is not the situation in Zimbabwe. (A) sad indictment of those in leadership. Instead of dispensing love, they are dispensing agony and sorrow,” Chamisa added.
