The Zanu PF Member of Parliament for the Gokwe-Nembudziya constituency, Justice Mayor Wadyajena, reportedly took delivery of a US$210,000 Lamborghini Urus supercar on Monday.
Pictures circulating online show the car being offloaded from a KLM cargo flight from Europe and being loaded onto a trailer at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
Multiple reports claim the young MP, a close ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, did not pay duty for the vehicle after negotiating a rebate with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA).
The Lamborghini Urus is an SUV manufactured by Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini. It was unveiled on 4 December 2017 and was put on the market for the 2018 model year. The name comes from the Urus, the ancestor of modern domestic cattle, also known as the aurochs.
Lamborghini boasts that the Urus needs just 3.6 seconds to reach 100 kph, and can reach speeds of 200 kph in 12.8 seconds. It has a top speed of 305 kph.
Powered by a 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 engine offering 478 kW from 6,000 rpm and 845 Nm of torque from 2,250 rpm, the Urus is Lamborghini’s first SUV since the 1980s LM002.
Commenting on the purchase journalist Hopewell Chin’ono said while “it is his (Wadjajena’s) money and he can do what he wants with it. But this explains the poverty-wealth gulf between the Zanu PF elites and the ordinary people in the streets.
“Whilst thousands of our people are dying daily for lack of diabetic medication, the elites have access to foreign exchange for this kind of a buy. Now this is the difference between the ZANU PF elites and the Rhodesians. The Rhodies invested in factories in the Granite Side area of town and the Heavy industry area of Southerton.
“They built a huge economy when they were under real sanctions that included a trade embargo. They built hospitals, roads, schools, created jobs, had working social services and provided council housing. How do you expect our country to thrive when we allocate foreign exchange to those buying Lamborghinis?
“All these folks are not ordinary MPs, they belong to a special club of the President’s inner circle! Here is the joke, Wadyajena didn’t even pay customs duty for this yellow car which is now already on Harare’s roads. I am sure those on the lower end of the ZANU PF feeding trough are now starting to understand what we preach here daily.
“Holding public office comes with certain responsibilities that include being seen as sensitive to your people’s suffering. But not in Zimbabwe. We have cancer machines that are not working, not even one of them is working in the whole country. Yet our leaders flaunt this type of profligacy!
“The money that the taxpayer lost by Wadyajena not paying customs duties could have paid for the servicing of the five cancer machines that are not working in public hospitals. Zimbabwe has 5 cancer machines in public hospitals and all of them are down and yet they only need $122,000 to get them working again.
“Meanwhile poor Zimbabweans are having their groceries confiscated at borders by the same ZIMRA that is letting in the ZANU PF elites bring these cars duty free! Shame,” Chin’ono added.
