Mnangagwa blasted over Zambezi water

via Mnangagwa blasted over Zambezi water – New Zimbabwe 07/06/2015

OPPOSITION politicians and activists from Bulawayo have condemned Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa for allegedly taking city residents for granted through regurgitating old and unfulfilled promises of drawing water from the Zambezi River on behalf of the region.

At a rally to drum up support for Zanu PF candidates ahead of Wednesday’s round of by-elections, Mnangagwa claimed Saturday the city’s water problems would soon be a thing of the past.

This, he said, has been guaranteed by South Africa which wants to draw water from the river in a gigantic project that shall see the perennially dry Matebeleland region also benefiting.

While in the city, the powerful Zanu PF top politician also commissioned a bus for Highlanders Football Club.

While Mnangagwa could have been excused for visiting the city to land mutual support to party candidates, his political opponents were not amused by his boldness to recycle age-old promises of drawing water from the Zambezi River.

Top among these was Bulawayo East MP and MDC-T official Thabitha Khumalo who felt the Zambezi water project was an over-used election gimmick by Zanu PF.

“Mnangagwa must stop playing with our brains as people from Matebeleland; we are not people who need psychiatric help,” said the firebrand politician.

“The Zambezi water project is a gimmick that is repeatedly being used by Zanu PF to try and win the Matebeleland vote. As far as we are concerned this issue died a natural death and chances of it being revived are nil.

“We are sick and tired of this political gimmick.”

Khumalo said people in the country’s second largest city had now resigned themselves to quenching their thirst through the more feasible Gwayi River Project.

Similarly, Meli Dube, director with the Bulawayo Agenda slammed politicians from the ruling party for selective amnesia when it comes to the needs of the people in the city.

“Politicians have taken people for granted for too long,” he told NewZimbabwe.com.

“What we have known is that each time an election comes, they suddenly remember every needs of the residents of Bulawayo, they suddenly remember about the Matebeleland Zambezi Water Project, they suddenly remember Highlanders Football Club exists and then soon after elections, they go to sleep only to remember in the next election; but I think the electorate and the residents of Bulawayo and people in general are wiser than that.”

The Matebeleland Zambezi Water Project was mooted decades ago with the intention of supplying water to drought-prone parts of Matebeleland.

But the project has failed to see the light of day through general inertia and corruption blamed on the Zanu PF government.