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Chinotimba causes stir at hotel

by Oswell Mlothwa
06 May 2011 at 23:20hrs | Views
Rogue war vet threatens to take over hotel and run it better

HARARE - SELF-styled war veterans controversial leader - Joseph Chinotimba yesterday caused a stir at the Jameson Hotel in Harare when he rowdily demanded to be served first ahead of scores of Copac delegates that had come first before him.

Clad in a checked khaki jacket, a brown rouse and brown shoes, a visibly frustrated Chinotimba was witnessed by this reporter shouting at the visibly shaken waiters and onlookers demanding that he has the first go on food and drinks.

"I can't stand here as if I am being, Government yakabhadara dzese izvi. I need to eat and go we have a lot of things to attend to," he said before the duty manager (name withheld) approached him and told him to first say his room number, then get a meal ticket.

That was not to be as the angry and loud ex-combatant loudly declared that he was a "chef" and cannot queue like boys and that he will take the hotel and run it better – pointing at other middle-aged men who were queuing for food.

"Iwe, unodha kuti ini ndimire pa queue? Forget, you don't know kuti ndiri chef? I can take this hotel and run it better; ah you people are not serious. Just tell those girls to give me food and stop wasting my time. Zvese zwakabhadarwa, so why are you taking long to give us food," he said sparking a roar of laughter from those that were already enjoying their dinner.

The manager then ordered a girl to serve the war veteran and when the waitress asked him what he wanted he replied confidently: "Isa Zvese, and a Coke."  The waitress did as ordered.

Chinotimba is a former security guard who rose to popularity during Robert Mugabe's bloody land grab and is notorious for closing a school in Mashonaland East. He turned the school to a training centre for Zanu PF terror militias.

He has been defeated by Jabulani Sibanda in the elections or the leadership of the freedom fighters and he has clung to the post despite overwhelming reject by the ex-combatants.

Zanu PF has since found him a thing to do at Copac where he is the Thematic Committee for Labour.