Zanu-PF to splurge $15m on new vehicles

Zanu-PF will issue at least 300 brand new off-road vehicles and pay monthly salaries to members of its Central Committee, the party's secretary for administration Obert Mpofu said on Saturday.

Using conservative estimates, the vehicles will cost at least US$15 million.

"We have a budget now for our Central Committee members and they will be getting salaries and vehicles for their work. What is left is to give them the terms of reference and they go into the districts and branches and the province," Mpofu told a Zanu-PF inter-district meeting at the party's Davis Hall provincial headquarters in Bulawayo.

"Those vehicles are not for carrying vegetables, it must be for party business. We receive too many reports on how these resources are being misused and it is very embarrassing to say the least."

During elections in July last year, Zanu-PF bought Isuzu, Ford Ranger and VW Amarok 4×4 vehicles for all its 210 candidates campaigning to be MPs – its spending far outpacing its opposition rivals.

Zanu-PF is known to be broke, with its companies reported to be in the red after being looted by officials.

The latest intended splurge on vehicles and salaries for Central Committee members will raise fresh questions about the party's source of funds in the middle of a deepening economic crisis at the heart of which is a crippling shortage of foreign currency.

Zanu-PF is auditing its party structures in preparation for elections in 2023.

"We have to be truthful about the number of cells that we have. If they are 10, just tell us that there are 10, if you lie about this figure then you send false messages to leadership which is not correct," Mpofu said.