Some villagers in Kutama Village in Zvimba district are not comfortable about speaking openly on the death of former President Robert Mugabe who died in Singapore on Friday.
Zvimba district, where Mugabe was born and bred, is in Mashonaland West province, about 100km from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
NewZimbabwe.com was told by some villagers that they could not speak of Mugabe’s legacy as they were afraid of reprisals by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s supporters. A villager only identified as Steven had this to say:
Since Mugabe was removed from power in November 2017 there has always been tension among villagers with others openly declaring that it was their time to benefit from the new administration.
We got agriculture inputs on time and around here it’s electrified because of him, we also benefited from the irrigation.
Some of the villagers are bitter because of Mugabe’s policies which left them in abject poverty.
Remember when he was in power some wanted him to leave early but that was not the case.