MUTARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa is surrounded by vultures who are thriving on massive corruption, a result that has worsened the country’s economic situation, a senior war veteran in Manicaland has said.
He also called for the formation of a government of national unity (GNU) to alleviate poverty.
In an exclusive interview with The Zimbabwe Morning Post in Mutare on Sunday, Irvin Mbengo the Deputy Political Commissar for Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (Manicaland Chapter) said Mnangagwa should swallow pride and form a Government of National Unity (GNU) that will make a significant improvement of the quality of life of Zimbabweans.
“The problem is that President Mnangagwa is taking too much time concentrating and listening to useless people around him, these so called ministers,” he said.
“These are the wrong people giving him poisonous ideas. These people are not employable elsewhere so they hang around the President giving him wrong information and advice, thereby, taking advantage of their positions to thrive on massive corruption, enriching themselves in the process,” explained the popular war veteran.
“They have taken the situation to further satisfy their selfish egos and ends. They are heartless these people. The President must not listen to these people anymore because what they want is to benefit from the country’s economic situation,” Mbengo added.
“We have too many thieves in the leadership of this country. There is corruption everywhere and our country’s leadership is protecting these corrupt officials,” he said.
He urged Mnangagwa to seriously consider a GNU.
“We need to tell each other the truth here. The government will not win this war alone. I am talking the war against high prices of basic war commodities, the war against fuel and electricity shortages and the valueless money. The situation is getting worse everyday,” said Mbengo.
“The only answer that solves the economy is the GNU. It will only take about nine months before we start talking about a better economy. We have tasted how life was good during the previous GNU,” he said.
In 2009, the GNU was set up on the basis of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
The agreement came about as a result of inconclusive elections which had seen President Robert Mugabe being beaten by Morgan Tsvangirai and Zanu PF losing its parliamentary majority to MDC.
“During the GNU we saw local industries beginning to fire up providing jobs where there were none for years. Public education and health care systems, which virtually shut down in 2008 due to political and economic stress, had a significant recovery,” he said.
Mbengo added that in 2008 Zimbabwe virtually collapsed and this where Zimbabwe is going now.
“Everything was dead in the country. But when the GNU came in everything came alive again. Everything went well smoothly,” he explained.
“Now we are back at it again, we have long queues and cashless banks. We should not be late again, GPA is the only solution,” said Mbengo.
