Mnangagwa inexplicably fails to address Hwange rally

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa inexplicably failed to address thousands of Zanu-PF supporters who had turned up at the Colliery Stadium yesterday.

Instead, the Zanu-PF leader proceeded to the resort town of Victoria Falls, where he was reportedly due to officiate at a Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce business function.

While State media had reported that Mnangagwa would address the Hwange community after officially launching the power station project, the President left many seething with anger after he somehow ignored the multitudes, with acting Information minister Simon Khaya Moyo adding to the confusion by claiming he was not in the loop about the rally.

"I did not know about a rally," Khaya Moyo told NewsDay last night.

Asked if the President had been aware, Khaya Moyo retorted: "I don't know."

Zanu-PF supporters braved the punishing humid conditions in Hwange from morning to late afternoon waiting for the party leader to address them, but were forced to troop out of the stadium after officials told them Mnangagwa "was busy".

"We have just been told that the President is tied up with business. We waited since morning and now this. It's not right. They should have told us earlier," said one disappointed supporter draped in new party regalia, leaving the small mining town of Hwange in a kaleidoscope of Zanu-PF colours.

Information ministry principal director Regis Chikowore, who attended the Hwange power project event, was not picking up calls.

Sources claimed Mnangagwa was still scheduled to address a campaign rally in Matabeleland North this weekend although this could not be confirmed.

It would have been the first rally that Mnangagwa was addressing under a week after a deadly bomb blast at Bulawayo's White City Stadium left two of his aides dead and over 40 others injured.