Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa, says party legislators who obtained US$40,000 housing loans from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government will be severely punished by the electorate.
Chamisa told an online publication, NewsHawks, that the loans are designed to garner political support for Zanu PF and decimate the opposition ahead of the 2023 council, parliamentary and presidential elections.
He said, “It’s not so much about CCC, it’s actually about Mnangagwa trying to avert a bhora musango within the party. The issue is that the MPs are going to vote for themselves, not to campaign for him but campaign for mukomana. And to avert that, they had to try and oil the palm of the Members of Parliament and they couldn’t do it for Zanu PF only from what I have investigated and I got a report this afternoon. They also had to do it for CCC. But CCC were not supposed to drink from this poisoned chalice.
“They have joined the pioneer column, they have joined the gravy train and they have crossed the line. I have told them that if you don’t act accordingly you know that the citizens are waiting for you and they are going to punish you, and punish you heavily. That one is already catered for. I don’t agree with it, I don’t encourage it, I don’t support it. I don’t believe that people must be talking about their welfare when the nation is struggling.”
Cabinet Ministers and their deputies were each granted housing loans of up to US$500,000.
Zimbabweans are fuming over the loans saying the government was supposed to use the money for revamping collapsing public health facilities, schools, roads and other key infrastructure.