Residents of the City of Kings have expressed their displeasure in the government’s decision to hold an E-Gala at a Bulawayo Hotel to commemorate the anti-sanctions day and called it wasteful and unnecessary, New Zimbabwe reports.
Residents and CSO and parties in the country’s second-largest city had nothing good to say about the e-gala that was held by the government in collaboration with Zanu PF. Mbuso Fuzwayo, the Ibhetshu Likazulu coordinator said:
The gala is a waste of state resources. They are abusing resources and want us to believe they are failing because of sanctions. It is a diversion tactic and a party political programme meant to make citizens support corruption under the guise of fighting sanctions.
If there are sanctions, you engage the countries that imposed them and make concessions, not galas. The purpose of last night’s gala was not to fight for the removal of sanctions but cheating the suffering citizens to continue supporting the looting of national resources.
The anti-sanctions gala is like the youth rallies of Chipanga in which the G40 wanted to take power through those rallies when they knew power is in Zanla. Even yesterday’s gala is nonsense
While Economic Freedom Fighters Zimbabwe (EFFZ) president Innocent Ndibali said;
It is EFF Zimbabwe’s policy that economic sanctions against the people of Zimbabwe must be lifted and must be lifted now. However, we also call upon the government of Zimbabwe and Zanu PF to apply the same level of energy and commitment to lifting their own sanctions they have put on our people.
The people are asking for better economic management, end to corruption, better healthcare services, education, jobs, clean water, electricity, rule of law and to be able to hold free and fair political activities.
Zapu spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa also said the government needs to focus on other things than on an e-gala:
For starters, there are no sanctions against Zimbabwe or its economy. What the establishment is whining about are travel restrictions against a few Zanu PF officials who are found to be violating human rights, democratic rights, and also practicing corruption. They have used this as cover for their failure to govern and also turn around the economy.
If you lead a country under sanctions and fail to bust them and turn to sympathy seeking, it means you cannot lead, for leadership is all about solving problems.
However, the Zanu PF regime should actually address corruption and thievery within its ranks and stop shooting at wrong targets. Again, Bulawayo is being sacrificed for slaughter as the royal city is being exposed to coronavirus infections in the absence of adequate health infrastructure to contain any outbreak.
While a student at NUST Mildred Moyo said:
We have not been attending lessons for the past two months because lecturers are on strike because the government is failing to pay them living wages yet they find money to hold useless galas. That gala obviously chewed a lot of resources which could have been deployed to more pressing issues.
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