China donates more than a million T-shirts to Zanu-PF

ZANU-PF has accepted delivery of more than one million campaign T-shirts and campaign materials from China, party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo confirmed yesterday.

Gumbo said the donated T-shirts were distributed before and during the launch of the party's campaign manifesto on Friday where President Robert Mugabe said the upcoming elections will be a fight to the death.

"We have many friends from the East," he said.

"They are the ones who donated the T-shirts and other campaign materials. We received well over one million T-shirts."

The donation comes a few days after Mugabe promised party supporters during a central committee meeting in Harare that he would get cars and cash from China to bankroll the party's campaigns.

Mugabe turned to the East after the West and the European Union slapped sanctions on him and his inner circle over alleged human rights abuses. The President has described China as Zimbabwe's all-weather friend.

Zanu-PF is reportedly facing a severe financial squeeze and is said to be surviving on bank overdrafts, despite pushing for elections to be held on July 31 - without electoral reforms.

Mugabe, at the launch of the party's manifesto anchored on indigenisation and empowerment, railed against those opposing elections to be held on July 31 to the extent of threatening to pull the country out of Sadc.