Khupe ally dismisses Polad

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Former Nkayi South legislator and Bulawayo businessman, Abednico Bhebhe has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of running down the economy and challenged him to admit failure.

BY NIZBERT MOYO

Former Nkayi South legislator and Bulawayo businessman, Abednico Bhebhe has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of running down the economy and challenged him to admit failure.

Bhebhe, who is the organising secretary for the MDC led by Thokozani Khupe, said he does not believe the talks between Mnangagwa and fringe opposition parties will produce any tangible results.

Khupe’s MDC is part of the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) that brings together leaders of political parties that took part in last year’s presidential elections, excluding the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa.

“I am now speaking as an individual, I do not believe that the talks between the opposition parties and the government will bear any fruits for the nation,” he said.

“President Mnangagwa should admit failure in order to invite help from those who are able to assist and revive the economy.

“To engage Zanu PF for talks is like licking Zanu PF’s wounds as they are the ones, who presided over the current rate of inflation from a one digit percentage point to the current three digit percentage point.”

Bhebhe said the government had demonstrated that it had no priorities by setting aside funds for a space project in the 2020 budget when the country was battling severe electricity shortages.

The former legislator also bemoaned the government’s failure to deal with corruption, saying Parliament was being prevented from investigating the alleged theft of public funds through command agriculture.

Zanu PF MPs last week disrupted proceedings of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which had summoned Sakunda boss Kuda Tagwirei to quiz him over the alleged corruption.

“He is nicknamed “Queen Bee’ meaning he has a lot of resources and is involved in a lot of government programmes,” Bhebhe said.

“He was supposed to appear before the PAC recently but Zanu PF committee members snubbed the meeting,.

“There is a high possibility that they could have been bribed because corruption flies in the face of these people, so that they do not attend since some of these Members of Parliament could be benefiting from a lot of these underhand deals.”