via Zimbabwe government priorities misplaced – Newsday December 10, 2015
REPORTS that the government is set to splash over $4 million after securing an upmarket house for Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko – a year after he checked in – is an indictment on the part of the government and clearly shows its priorities are misplaced.
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Mphoko moved into the upmarket hotel’s presidential suite immediately after being appointed Vice-President at Zanu PF’s contested elective congress last December. He’s been staying at the hotel with his family at the expense of the taxpayer.
NewsDay recently exposed his shenanigans when Mphoko had clocked over 300 days and in recent weeks pressure has been mounting on the VP culminating in the arrest of activists demonstrating against his continued stay at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare.
Mphoko has simply confirmed what the majority of people have all along suspected that the Zanu PF leadership does not care about the people, they are selfish and self-centred.
What purpose did it serve to keep him in an upmarket hotel instead of government buying him a house on his appointment?
One wonders why the government would give Mphoko a choice to buy the house at great expense when there are several vacant government houses dotted around the capital.
With drought beckoning, government needs enough financial resources to cushion the majority through supplementary feeding.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa is on record saying the government is broke and struggling to meet its financial obligations be they civil servants’ salaries or others, yet it has the liberty to pamper an individual at great expense to the nation. Selfless late Vice-Presidents Joshua Nkomo, Simon Muzenda, Joseph Msika and John Nkomo all used modest government properties.
So what is so special about this Mphoko guy?
Government should not support abuse of authority by senior officials who are supposed to safeguard the majority’s interests. In any case Mphoko is simply an appointee, who has never been voted for anywhere in the country. Does he represent any constituency that he calls his?
This Mphoko housing project is nothing other than a waste of money and resources at a time people are dying from famine. Clearly, $4 million is a lot of money that could feed starving villagers throughout the country.
There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is facing a dry agricultural season and there is no budget allocation for food aid, but money to buy a mansion for the VP.
This is irresponsible and wasteful.
What is even disturbing is the fact that Local Government ministry secretary George Mlilo stated after spending $4 million on the property, government would need additional funding to customise it to meet Mphoko’s standards and demands before moving in.
We are aware that Mphoko and his family remained in a hotel for this long because his wife, Laurinda, reportedly rejected three houses, among them a mansion in Ballantyne Park in Borrowdale worth $3 million, claiming that it was too small for a person of the VP’s stature.
The Mphokos also refused to move into the house left by the late Msika in Mandara, saying they wanted a residence of their own.
Should the people of Zimbabwe entrust their destiny with such self-serving leaders? Mphoko’s demand for an upmarket house is in direct contrast with his predecessor, the late Vice-President John Nkomo, who lived in a modest double-storey government house in Milton Park.
While government has a constitutional obligation to provide State accommodation to Vice-Presidents, who are also entitled to buy the properties at market value when their tenure of office ends, it must not be a ticket to overburden the heavily-taxed taxpayers to satisfy the leadership’s penchant for luxurious life.
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