GWERU — President Robert Mugabe on Friday left thousands of his supporters bemused after he quickly dashed to eat yogurt, some crisps and gulped a glass of red juice immediately after his hour long lecture at a star rally here.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
The 89-year-old president could be seen scooping the yogurt while his wife, Grace addressed Zanu PF supporters who had been bussed from all over the Midlands province.
Mugabe, who was introduced at the rally by Defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa as the “biblical Moses”, is rarely seen eating in public.
The Zanu PF presidential candidate, whose feet clearly looked swollen in his brown shoes, admitted at the rally that he was frail.
“When we hoisted the new Zimbabwe flag on April 1980, I was the prime minister, during that time I was a young man then filled with energy, not like now [ndanga ndichikutemwa dzinobvaropa],” he said.
Mugabe also clearly struggled to wave his cap towards his supporters as he arrived at the back of an open truck.
Mnangagwa boasted that his province had organised the biggest rally of all provinces outdoing Manicaland and Masvingo.
“Welcome Moses who has come here to take us from the land of slavery to the land of milk and honey, he gave us the land, mines and now companies … Midlands is the best province if you see the people here they are more than those who attended the Masvingo and Manicaland rallies combined,” said Mnangagwa.
Meanwhile, Zesa employees worked through the night on Thursday to install new power lines leading to the venue where Mugabe addressed his rally.
Power lines were drawn from Mkoba Teachers college into Mkoba 12 open space and a new transformer installed to power the public address system and ZBC equipment used to broadcast the rally live.
Tel-One staff were also on standby to ensure that uplink connections and internet were working, while the Ministry of Roads opened roads to ensure that the motorcade rolled smoothly to the VIP tent.