Picture Outrage: Kasukuwere coerces child to do Zanu PF slogan
By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
There is growing outrage over a picture showing Local Government minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, coercing a child to execute a Zanu PF slogan.
The incident stands in sharp contrast to recent calls by his counterpart in government, Prisca Mupfumira, the Labour and Social Welfare minister who recently lambasted the commemoration of Itai Dzamara’s birthday where his children were present.
Mupfumira condemned the Dzamara family for including Itai’s children in the commemoration, describing it as political grandstanding.
The condemnation was taken up by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF Zimbabwe), which also described Dzamara’s birthday celebration as political.
In the photograph, Kasukuwere is seen crouching and, in Zanu PF regalia, holding the hand of the child who is around four years of age.
Patson Dzamara, brother to Itai who was abducted by suspected security agents in March last year and whose whereabouts remain unknown, has reacted angrily to Mupfumira’s and UNICEf’s statements.
He announced that he would present a petition at the UNICEF offices on Friday.
The #Tajamuka civil activists on Wednesday protested at the UNICEF offices in Belgravia while a new protest group of exiles called Zimbabweans without Borders (ZWB) has issued a statement rapping UNICEF’s position.
Children have in the past been shepherded to Zanu PF rallies where they have spent long periods on empty stomachs, sometimes being forced to use hate language. Nehanda Radio
