Mugabe ignorant about SONA

Opposition political parties and labour unions have ganged up to attack President Robert Mugabe on his drab State of the Nation Address  (SONA)  on Tuesday.

 The parties said Mugabe is out of touch with reality as he said the economy was on a recovery path.

 Mugabe  delivered a 34 minute (SONA) largely described as a non event.

Instead of addressing the economy and the political issues that have dominated public discourse, Mugabe spoke about an anticipated boom in the tourism and agricultural sectors and successes scored in the implementation of government's forgotten ZimAsset.

MDC-T national spokesperson Obert Gutu said his party has since advised aging Mugabe on what SONA is all about.

"We have to advise President Mugabe of the State of the Nation(SONA).His address in Parliament yesterday proved he isn't aware of the SONA" he wrote on his official twitter account.

 People's Democratic Party leader and former finance minister Tendai Biti is expected to deliver his own version of the State of the Economy Address (SEA) on Friday.

 Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general, Japhet Moyo, described Mugabe's speech as shallow and devoid of substance.

"We are not surprised that the President did not address the real issues. Real issues include creation of employment, that people are being forced to use bond notes and that they can't access their money from banks. He was silent on the future of workers, on the critical issue of whether we will have jobs in 2017," he said.

Moyo said Mugabe's silence on civil servants' bonuses was telling of an arrogant government and leadership, which chooses to ignore real issues.

"They know the real issues, but we are not surprised that they chose to ignore all the things that are crucial. It shows arrogance and we are not surprised because this is what they have always done," he said.