ZANU PF silences little girl

The Matabeleland South ZANU PF leadership stopped a 14 year old primary school girl from recitation of a some what controversial poem in front of first lady Grace Mugabe in Gwanda on Monday.

The little girl from Freda Mine Primary School in Gwanda who the press could not immediately identify was the first performer on the stage in what appeared to have been late rehearsal of entertainment which was to be performed for the first lady later in the day. The girl chanted a poem expressing issues around the marginilisation and under development of Matabeleland region.

The poem highlighted the various plights of the people of Matabeleland which included lack of schools and hospitals and poverty. The small crowd that was still gathering at that time cheered the little girl with shouts like "batshele mtwana" (tell them little girl) thrown at the little girl who went on innocently and confidently.

The poem closed off by asking the first lady to get government to put tar on the Gwanda - Maphisa Road and a bridge over Mtshabezi River exiting the town on the old Bulawayo Road. Rumours have been spreading around Gwanda town for years that the Gwanda - Maphisa Road which is arguably the worst road in the country is recorded in the national road network in Harare as being a tarred highway. The rumours claim that funds for the construction of the road were diverted elsewhere and government was misinformed.

Of all the acts that "rehearsed" in the morning before the first lady's arrival the little girl is the only one who was not given a chance to present her act infront of the first lady raising speculation amongst the people that she was silenced. Media personnel who wanted a copy of the girl's poem were blocked from speaking to her nor her teachers.