‘We’ve made remarkable progress in two years, than Mugabe’s 38 years’ – Mohadi




Kembo Mohadi
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GWANDA – The new political administration has managed to achieve milestones that the previous dispensation failed to make progress on during its entire tenure, Vice President Kembo Mohadi has said.

Addressing the ZANU PF Matabeleland South Provincial Co-ordinating Committee (PCC) in Gwanda Town yesterday, VP Mohadi said the country is on the right track under the astute stewardship of President Mnangagwa.

“We have done what the first dispensation did not achieve. The Beitbridge-Masvingo Road; Harare-Chirundu Road were done by the New Dispensation. In Chimanimani, where Cyclone Idai wreaked havoc and killed many people, new road networks have been constructed, new schools and housing units have been put up.

“Agricultural produce can now be taken to markets, and (in all this) we used our own resources and local expertise.”

Some critics, he added, had grimly projected up to one million deaths by June as a result of the coronavirus, but Government had managed to contain the pandemic to manageable levels.

VP Mohadi also took a swipe at party members who were involved in vote buying.

“When I was injured during the 2018 blast at White City Stadium, people took advantage of my incapacitation to use money to buy their way into the party. Now we have people who do not know what ZANU PF stands for because they were not groomed by the party,” he added.

The Vice President said although the country was feeling the effects of three successive droughts, Government has made sure no one dies of hunger.

“The Government is talking of Vision 2030, where we are saying we should have attained an upper middle-income economy by 2030; this is something which we are focused on.”

ZANU PF, he said, is committed to achieving its target of 5 million voters in 2023. 

We’re here to stay

Meanwhile, Mohadi also declared that Zimbabwe will, for a long time, remain under military rule because civilians had no capacity to enforce stability.

Addressing government officials, among them Cabinet ministers, following a tour of infrastructure built under the Beitbridge Redevelopment Project, Mohadi said the “junta” would not be dislodged by “dogs barking at the rising moon”, in apparent reference to the media and opposition parties exposing the Zanu PF government’s inadequacies.

“People call us junta, the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) is a war veteran, Vice-President (Constantino) Chiwenga is a soldier, I am a soldier, (Housing) minister (Daniel) Garwe here is a soldier and we will rule not minding what the media says. We will continue to rule. Civilians will not,” he said.

“Those of you who are like dogs barking at the rising moon, you can come back home because the moon will continue rising. There is nothing wrong in coming back home.”

His remarks came at a time the opposition MDC Alliance, which accuses Mnangagwa of rigging the July 2018 presidential election, has escalated its campaign for the international community to intervene and resolve the political logjam which has plunged the country in a crisis.

MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa claims that he won the presidential poll, but was denied a clear victory by Mnangagwa working in cahoots with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Court which endorsed the Zanu PF leader as winner.

In another matter, Mohadi said government had already “dealt with” the person who detonated an explosive that killed two VVIP security aides, and seriously injured several government and Zanu PF officials at a rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo in June 2018.

He, however, could not name the culprit or disclose how government had dealt with him, raising speculation that the State might have applied extra-judicial punishment on the suspected assassin.

At least 45 people including Mohadi, Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, former Zanu PF national commissar Engelbert Rugeje, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Marry, to name a few, were injured in the explosion, widely believed to have been targeted at Mnangagwa.

The incident occurred when political tempers were still high in Zanu PF following the ouster of the now late former President Robert Mugabe in a November 2017 military coup.

“I know people are asking when that person will be arrested. We are not interested in that. He has been dealt with and he will never be able to do that again. We are not going to arrest him. He is not going to do it again,” Mohadi said.

Turning to the main agenda of his visit, Mohadi said government was keen to complete construction of civil servants’ houses under a project started in 2004.

“Someone might want to ask why we are starting in Beitbridge, this is the face of the country. People get the impression of our country at Beitbridge and we have to start here,” he said

“We believe in ourselves and we will make it happen. We have done the Beitbridge-Harare Road at our pace and resources. We have our 2030 vision. The trajectory of our country is going up and will never go down because we are using our own resources. We will soon be the strongest country in the region.”

He said two other border posts would be built at Shashi and Chikwarakwara to decongest Beitbridge.

“We have convinced all the doubting Thomases that we are fully aware of what we are doing. Those sitting on the fence will soon be convinced. We are doing these projects according to our (party) manifesto,” Mohadi said.

The VP also said the ruling party would not be distracted by sideshows from the opposition, but continue with its development agenda.

He sarcastically invited opposition party members to rejoin Zanu PF, saying all opposition activists were once ruling party followers.