Source: Mugabe slammed for snacking on banned imports – DailyNews Live
Gift Phiri 28 February 2017
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe has come under fire for snacking on
imported products that his government banned, with the opposition saying
the move exposes the nonagenarian’s high level of hypocrisy.
They said what further exposes his pretence is his penchant for using
foreign hospitals and sending his children to study abroad while shunning
local institutions.
Celebrating his 93rd birthday on Saturday in the Matobo resort area – 30
kilometres from Bulawayo – the continent’s oldest leader snacked on
imported American sour cream and onion flavoured Lay’s potato crisps while
sipping on South African Valpre mineral water.
This comes as his government last June imposed a ban – gazetted under
Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016 – on the importation of basic goods,
including bottled water and potato crisps, most of which come from South
Africa, among many others.
The ban crippled informal employment, whereby people imported cheaper
imports for resale in Zimbabwe, where many long-suffering and jobless
masses had turned to in order to eke out a living.
MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said: “In his (Mugabe) scheme of things, SI 64
of 2016 is only meant to affect the majority of poor Zimbabweans, and
certainly not him and members of his greedy and corrupt inner circle.
“This man has always been a fake revolutionary; a far cry from genuine
revolutionaries such as Thomas Sankara and Che Guevara,” he said, adding
that Zimbabweans deserve a “government that genuinely loves and cares
about the people . . . (and is) accountable and transparent”.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) spokesperson Jacob Mafume said it is this
kind of policy inconsistency that has plagued his 37-year rule.
“Not only does he (Mugabe) munch and drink imported water, he also sends
his children to outside universities and he is treated by outside
hospitals. He, like all other African leaders, tends to use national
airlines as ambulances to foreign hospitals,” he said.
Spokesperson of Welshman Ncube’s MDC, Kurauone Chihwayi, added that Mugabe
displayed hypocrisy of the highest order, saying “he is known for
indicating right and turning left”.
“He needs to humble himself and must eat maputi (popcorn) and other local
foodstuffs he has limited us all to,” he said.
However, a United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean academic, George Shire, said:
“It was his birthday, he can eat what he likes.”
According to the Government Gazette, importers of the listed products have
to apply for special licences and justify why they need them.
Zanu PF youth leader Kudzai Chipanga told the party that SI 64 was paying
dividends, with some firms recording increased demand for their products
and boosting local production.
Buy Zimbabwe lobby group, which cheered the import restrictions last year
saying they will push retailers to procure stock from the local market,
declined to comment on Mugabe snacking on the banned goods.
“I reserve my comment,” its chief economist Kipson Gundani said.
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