HARARE – Outspoken Zanu-PF activist and businessman Acie Lumumba has stirred fresh controversy after accusing socialite Pokello Nare of contributing “nothing” to the ruling party while also alleging that controversial gold dealer Scott Sakupwanya is linked to drug inflows into the country.
Lumumba made the remarks in a video circulating online, where he criticised what he described as emerging “beneficiaries” within Zanu-PF who take more than they give.
In the recording, Lumumba claimed Pokello, who is married to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son, Emmerson Junior, provides no political or organisational value to the party despite enjoying a luxurious lifestyle and public prominence.
He further argued that her social media image mirrors the public opulence once associated with the late former President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace, saying she symbolises what he called an “extraction economy” within the party.
During her time in power, Grace was nicknamed “Gucci Grace” because of her flamboyant lifestyle.
“I do have a problem with another brand, for example, Pokello Nare, the most demonic phenomenon in Zanu-PF, by certain societal standards, Pokello was used by everything that can use a woman, all her relationships collapsed,” he said.
“Her celebrity was dimmed, her transactional value had declined, but she repositioned herself and perhaps perfectly, she married the president’s son as a second wife, now she leads a very luxurious life, designer bags, European trips with her friends, curated Instagram, but she contributes absolutely nothing to the party’s survival.
“She doesn’t mobilise, she organises nothing, she brings no children to the party who may become future voters, she’s not even a registered voter, she simply extracts and then displays the world, exactly like Gucci Grace.
“The Mugabe children fronted wealth in opulence, the Mugabe sons particularly were not discreet, now Mugabe’s kids are very discreet, they don’t flaunt, they don’t post, so the new face of the old Mugabe’s child excess is Pokello.
“She is the second wife who arrived when all the work was done, smiled for the pictures and drove off with the luxury car, she is the symbol of the new Zanu-PF, a pure beneficiary who extracts without contributing.
“She rose by replacing a woman who had done all the work and loved the man when it was not fashionable to love the man, Pokello performs the extravagance that we no longer see from the Mugabe kids, she is doing nothing wrong legally but symbolically, she represents the extraction economy that fuels Zimbabwean anger.
“I’m using this as an example because I want to illustrate the difference between people who take from Zanu-PF and then give back to Zanu-PF versus people who only take from Zanu-PF and we have nothing to collateralise in return.”
Lumumba also used the platform to target Sakupwanya, alleging, without providing evidence, that the businessman is responsible for “a lot of the drugs coming into the country”.
Despite the accusation, he noted that Sakupwanya “gives to the party as much as he takes”.
“I do not have a problem with, say, Scott Sakupwanya,” Lumumba stated.
“I saw a recent picture of him, his nose is so big now that it looks like he snorted half of Kariba Dam, but politics has room for drug users too, in fact he is responsible for a lot of the drugs that are coming into the country, but that’s another episode.
“But I don’t even have a problem with him because he gives to the party as much as he takes to the party, from the party, so he is contributing.”
Sakupwanya has so far not publicly responded to Lumumba’s claims.
Ace Lumumba should just go bavk to making adult videos, before he bastardizes real issues of concern.