News / National
SA police block Tajamuka protesters
26 Jun 2017 at 06:10hrs | Views
SOUTH African police at the weekend reportedly blocked Tajamuka/Sesijikile protesters who had threatened to storm a Sandton hotel and disrupt a South Africa-Zimbabwe business conference, where Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa was guest of honour.
Mnangagwa was leading a high-powered delegation comprising Cabinet ministers and captains of industry at the conference, running under the theme Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe.
The conference was held between Friday and Saturday.
The protestors said they wanted to humiliate Mnangagwa for attempting to gloss over the political and economic crisis back home, and painting Zimbabwe as the best investment destination.
They also accused the Zanu-PF government of using the conference to fundraise for the ruling party's 2018 election campaign.
Tajamuka's South African spokesperson, Mbongeni Nyathi said they braved the cold weather on Friday night and staged a demonstration at the hotel, but were shut out of the premises when the conference was going on inside Radisson Blue Hotel.
"We braved the cold weather, but we were shut out," he said.
Earlier, the protestors had confronted hotel management demanding cancellation of the conference, but to no avail.
Nyathi said there was no "Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe", as stated in the conference's theme.
"As a government, they failed to account for $15 billion and with no shame, Zim-SA Forum hosts such an event in a foreign land. They refuse a Diaspora ballot box and yet they want us to come and pay our hard-earned cash to a regime which beats our parents, brothers and sisters to vote for them," he said.
Mnangagwa was leading a high-powered delegation comprising Cabinet ministers and captains of industry at the conference, running under the theme Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe.
The conference was held between Friday and Saturday.
The protestors said they wanted to humiliate Mnangagwa for attempting to gloss over the political and economic crisis back home, and painting Zimbabwe as the best investment destination.
They also accused the Zanu-PF government of using the conference to fundraise for the ruling party's 2018 election campaign.
Tajamuka's South African spokesperson, Mbongeni Nyathi said they braved the cold weather on Friday night and staged a demonstration at the hotel, but were shut out of the premises when the conference was going on inside Radisson Blue Hotel.
"We braved the cold weather, but we were shut out," he said.
Earlier, the protestors had confronted hotel management demanding cancellation of the conference, but to no avail.
Nyathi said there was no "Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe", as stated in the conference's theme.
"As a government, they failed to account for $15 billion and with no shame, Zim-SA Forum hosts such an event in a foreign land. They refuse a Diaspora ballot box and yet they want us to come and pay our hard-earned cash to a regime which beats our parents, brothers and sisters to vote for them," he said.
Source - newsday
