‘Zanu PF won’t apologise for using State resources’

By Farayi Machamire

Zanu PF will continue using State resources to fund party projects and will offer no apology for it, Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao said.

He was speaking at a Zanu PF rally in Norton on Monday where the party’s youth league secretary, Kudzanai Chipanga, parcelled out 5 000 residential stands to party supporters.

“I am here as Youths minister representing government to send a message to those who want to intimidate us with a misconception that government institutions like Zimdef, Urban Development Corporation (Udcorp) and others cannot give resources to Zanu PF supporters,” Zhuwao said.

“Zanu PF is a citizen of this country hence its supporters must benefit and we are unapologetic about it,” he went on, adding that the ruling party will not apologise for using Udcorp — a government entity mandated to ensure the provision of housing.

Udcorp is currently embroiled in allegations of land scandals.

Addressing the same gathering, Chipanga said State resources will not be accessed by those outside Zanu PF structures.

He said many people thought the fast track land reform programme was a fly by night initiative but 16 years later, resettled farmers are still enjoying the fruits of the initiative, albeit at the cost of the agricultural sector that is reeling from under-production.

“We distributed stands in Bulawayo, we distributed stands in Rusape, Norton you are third. We are going to Harare next week. In Chishawasha we are coming there and soon everyone will be having their stand number,” he said.

Just last week, Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere echoed the same sentiments saying the party was determined to cling on to power by any means necessary, even if it meant looting Zimbabwe’s remaining scarce resources.

Speaking at a rally in Norton on Thursday, a fuming Kasukuwere whose words were later endorsed by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, said he was ready to face jail for defending the interests of the party.

Zanu PF’s partisan distribution of land is not the only element that has come into question.

Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira last week controversially told starving Norton residents that they risk losing out on food aid if they remained outside Zanu PF structures.

She used the Zanu PF Norton rally platform on Thursday to distribute 60 tonnes of maize seed.

This came as President Robert Mugabe, in February, declared a state of disaster in regions affected by the El Niño-induced drought.

The crisis has left four million people in need of food and in need of humanitarian aid with agencies calling on the ruling party to look beyond politics after allegations by human rights commission that opponents of Mugabe were being denied assistance. Daily News