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Mugabe Urged to Stop Attacking Zimbabweans


Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Zanu PF's Robert Mugabe. (AP Photos/Collage by Ntungamili Nkomo)
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Zanu PF's Robert Mugabe. (AP Photos/Collage by Ntungamili Nkomo)

The Movement for Democratic Change on Friday urged President Robert Mugabe to concentrate on reviving the ailing economy instead of attacking the social lives of other Zimbabweans.

In a statement released by Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC-T said it is embarrassing that Mr. Mugabe is spending most his time attacking people when the economy is collapsing.

Mr. Mugabe yesterday used the burial of national hero, Major General Eliah Bandama, to attack some people for what he said were their alleged involvement with several women.

The president did not specifically mention the people that are involved in such affairs.

But Tamborinyoka, said Mr. Mugabe was the least qualified to talk of moral issues after he married his current wife, Grace, when his late wife, Sally, was on her death bed suffering from a kidney ailment.

“This is a man who, as president of the country, had a child with his secretary while his wife, Sally, was dying of a kidney ailment. His eldest daughter, Bona, is a child he had with his private secretary while his wife was terminally ill. Zimbabweans are facing a serious national crisis and the least they expect is unnecessary and needless diversions from key issues affecting them,” said the MDC-T.

The MDC-T said government workers have no pay, the country is facing a serious liquidity crunch, Zimbabwe has an unserviced debt of over $10 billion but all the president of the country has on his mind is Tsvangirai.

The party said, for the record, Tsvangirai has publicly spoken about his own personal issues.

The MDC-T said, “In 2012, he issued a public statement offering his apologies to anyone who may have been inconvenienced during his search for a woman to marry after the death of his wife of 31 years.”

Mr. Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan, died in a car accident. Mister Tsvangirai was allegedly involved with some women before he met his current wife, Elizabeth Macheka, daughter of a senior Zanu PF member.

“Recently, in his ‘Personal Reflections’, he made it clear that any perceived errors about him did not constitute the sum total of who he was as a national leader. But facts are stubborn. Whatever President Tsvangirai did, he was a widower. He is now happily married to his wife, Elizabeth.”

The party further said it believes that Mr. Mugabe’s diatribe is an attempt to divert national attention from the huge crisis facing the nation and his failure to come up with a solution.

“Zimbabweans refuse to be needlessly side-tracked and all the president should do is tell the nation how he is going to solve the multi-layered crisis facing the people of Zimbabwe.”

The MDC-T further noted that listening to the Mr Mugabe speaking at the Heroes Acre on Thursday, one would have thought that it was Morgan Tsvangirai who had died. “It is both immoral and unAfrican to attack people at a funeral; a funeral they would not even have attended.”

Presidential spokesman George Charamba was not available for comment as he was not answering his mobile phone.

President has been in power since Zimbabwe attained independence from British rule in 1980.

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