News / National
'Mugabe takes vote-buying to AU,' says MDC-T
05 Jul 2017 at 06:44hrs | Views
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has come under fire for donating $1 million to the African Union (AU) at a time his government is overborrowed and struggling to provide basic social service to its people.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu was quick to accuse Mugabe of trying to bribe the AU ahead of the 2018 general election so the continental body could favour him in the event of disputed elections.
"There's a sinister motive in Mugabe's weird donation to the AU. Remember, there are elections to be held in Zimbabwe in 2018," he said.
"Mugabe and his faction-infested and bankrupt Zanu-PF regime are desperate to rig these elections so that they can cling onto power.
"This purported donation to the AU is actually a bribe that is meant to soften the response of the AU in the event that next year's elections are rigged."
Former Vice-President Joice Mujuru's National People's Party (NPP) attacked Mugabe for trying to present himself as a pan-Africanist when a crack unit of his army killed his own people during the Gukurahundi era.
"He set up an army unit to butcher fellow nationals simply because they were of a different tribe from his," NPP spokesman Methuseli Moyo said.
"Several fellow blacks were butchered just because they supported the opposition MDC between the year 2000 and 2008.
"And he wants Africa to see him as generous and caring. What a pretender! We hope the world will not be fooled by Mugabe's tokenism."
Zimbabwe Communist Party secretary-general Ngqabutho Mabhena accused Mugabe of using the donation to mask the problems facing the country to the outside world.
"This, in our view, is hypocrisy of the highest order given the number of Zimbabwean migrants who are scattered all over the world in search of a better life due to the economic collapse caused by the plunder by the parasitic black bourgeoisie," he said.
The donation, Mabhena said, came as people were dying in hospitals because of the scarcity of drugs, while students from poor communities were failing to access quality education because of lack of government funding.
But Information minister Chris Mushohwe dismissed the accusations, saying Mugabe only honoured a pledge as an honest person and had no intention of bribing anyone.
"I don't expect anything positive from the MDC-T. They are rooted in a European mindset, which believes that everything that happens in Africa is about bribes and rigging," he said.
"They want President Mugabe to fail to fulfil his pledge as an honest man because they are not."
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu was quick to accuse Mugabe of trying to bribe the AU ahead of the 2018 general election so the continental body could favour him in the event of disputed elections.
"There's a sinister motive in Mugabe's weird donation to the AU. Remember, there are elections to be held in Zimbabwe in 2018," he said.
"Mugabe and his faction-infested and bankrupt Zanu-PF regime are desperate to rig these elections so that they can cling onto power.
"This purported donation to the AU is actually a bribe that is meant to soften the response of the AU in the event that next year's elections are rigged."
Former Vice-President Joice Mujuru's National People's Party (NPP) attacked Mugabe for trying to present himself as a pan-Africanist when a crack unit of his army killed his own people during the Gukurahundi era.
"He set up an army unit to butcher fellow nationals simply because they were of a different tribe from his," NPP spokesman Methuseli Moyo said.
"And he wants Africa to see him as generous and caring. What a pretender! We hope the world will not be fooled by Mugabe's tokenism."
Zimbabwe Communist Party secretary-general Ngqabutho Mabhena accused Mugabe of using the donation to mask the problems facing the country to the outside world.
"This, in our view, is hypocrisy of the highest order given the number of Zimbabwean migrants who are scattered all over the world in search of a better life due to the economic collapse caused by the plunder by the parasitic black bourgeoisie," he said.
The donation, Mabhena said, came as people were dying in hospitals because of the scarcity of drugs, while students from poor communities were failing to access quality education because of lack of government funding.
But Information minister Chris Mushohwe dismissed the accusations, saying Mugabe only honoured a pledge as an honest person and had no intention of bribing anyone.
"I don't expect anything positive from the MDC-T. They are rooted in a European mindset, which believes that everything that happens in Africa is about bribes and rigging," he said.
"They want President Mugabe to fail to fulfil his pledge as an honest man because they are not."
Source - newsday
