ZANU PF Finance Secretary Patrick Chinamasa lost thousands of dollars to thieves who broke into his vehicle at Meikles Hotel in Harare on Monday evening.
Narrating the incident in a post on social media site X, formerly Twitter, Chinamasa said he lost $6 700 cash, of which US$1 700 belonged to him and US$5000 was money entrusted to him by a relative to deliver to Rusape. He wrote:
On the evening of Monday, 21 August 2023, at the 5-Star Meikles Hotel, an incident occurred which caused me great distress.
I led a 7-member Zanu-PF delegation to a scheduled meeting with Former Mozambican President, His Excellency President Joachim Chissano, the Zimbabwe-appointed Facilitator in the engagement with International Creditor Institutions over granting debt relief to Zimbabwe.
The delegation comprised myself as Leader, Cdes Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Zanu-PF Secretary for External Relations, Munyaradzi Machacha, Principal of the Chitepo School of Ideology, Fortune Chasi, Deputy Secretary of Legal Affairs, Herbert Madondo, Director of Security, Gamuchirai Mangundu, Director of External Relations, and Dr. Victor Mapuvire, Director in the Office of the Secretary-General Cde Dr. Obert Mpofu.
I drove myself to the venue and parked my car in the street right in front of the 5-Star Hotel. After ensuring that the car doors were locked and secure, I rode the lift up to the venue of our meeting with President Chissano.
The time was roughly 18:25 hours. Our meeting ended at about 21:35 hours. When I got to the car, I had the shock of my life.
A thief or thieves had smashed the right passenger window pane and there was broken glass all over the seat.
When I peeped inside to check on my bag, to my horror, I discovered that my bag had been stolen.
I went to the 5-Star Hotel Reception desk to inform them and to ask whether they had a clue who did it, when, and by whom.
Their calm response was to profess ignorance of the incident. A hotel guard accompanied me to the scene of the crime, also professing ignorance of the matter.
He told me that the hotel had no responsibility whatsoever over cars parked on the street, even if parked in front of the entrance to the 5-Star Hotel.
He emphasized again and again that the responsibility lay with the Harare Municipal Council and that any cars parked in the street in front of the 5-Star Hotel were parked at the owners’ risk.
To ram home his point, he directed my eyes to the CCTV camera on the wall directly overhead my car and explained that the camera was fixed to focus solely on the main entrance into the 5-Star Hotel and not the street, which was not the 5-Star Hotel’s responsibility.
The hotel General Manager, Mr Munjoma, was called to the scene and reiterated that the policy of the 5-Star Hotel was that there should be no 5-Star Hotel interference with the goings-on in the street in front of their 5-Star Hotel.
It was the strict policy of the 5-Star Hotel to turn a blind eye, technologically or otherwise, to what happens in the street in front of their entrance.
When police delayed coming to the scene, Mr Munjoma was kind enough to direct one of the hotel security guards to accompany me to the ZRP Harare Central Police Charge Office, where I made my report.
I retired home to a sleepless night, agonizing over my latest misfortune. As luck would have it, around 9 am on Tuesday, 22 August 2023, I received a call from Harare Central Police Despol, Mr. Moyo, informing me that my black Zanu-PF branded leather bag had been picked up in the Market Square area of Harare.
Naturally, the bag had been emptied of USD $6700 cash, of which USD $1700 was mine and USD $5000 was money entrusted to me by a relative to deliver to his parents in Rusape towards the construction of his house in Rusape.
My relative was taking advantage of my planned trip to Rusape on 23 August to vote for Team Zanu-PF, President ED Mnangagwa, Candidate Member of the National Assembly, and our Candidate for Local Authorities.
The rest of the contents of the bag were left intact, including my iPad, Identity Card, Driver’s Licence, CBZ and CABS bank swipe cards, 2 sets of spectacles, 21 x 20-litre Redan Coupons (not 20000 litres worth of fuel coupons or 1500 x 20 litre Puma coupons as has been reported on Social Media), and an assortment of personal and Zanu-PF files.
Missing was a Zanu-PF Commissariat document setting out schedules of Venues and dates of Provincial Star Rallies addressed by His Excellency President ED Mnangagwa and the Constituency-based Rallies addressed by the 2 Vice Presidents and Second Secretaries of Zanu-PF, Cdes Chiwenga and Mohadi, and the Zanu-PF National Chairman, Muchinguri-Kashiri.
The misfortune that befell me apart, the delegation’s meeting with President Chissano was a fruitful and constructive engagement.
Worth noting for the future was the point I made during the exchanges that, as they do in the United Nations and other global organizations, the sanctions-imposing countries wield unfriendly and veto powers in Creditor Institutions such as the World Bank and its Subsidiary Companies, the IMF and its subsidiaries, and the African Development Bank and its subsidiaries.
The point is that these sanctions-imposing countries will not agree to debt relief for as long as they maintain sanctions.
In other words, there is a direct link between the lifting of sanctions and agreeing to debt relief for Zimbabwe.
If they agree to lift sanctions, it will follow automatically that they will agree to grant debt relief…
More: Pindula News