HARDLY a day after his arrival from a four-month long
medical trip in China, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga torched a fierce
storm when he blasted MDC-run councils for failure to address service delivery
problems and the opposition at large for having a destructive mentality.
He also tongue-lashed striking civil servants. Chiwenga on
Saturday arrived in the capital aboard a Chinese government jet and immediately
threatened striking doctors, while attacking the MDC for having a “Genghis Khan
mentality”.
His comments immediately attracted a backlash from the
opposition MDC and doctors, among others, who feel the former army commander
was out of touch with developments which took place in his long absence.
“We would think that it is high time high-ranking officials
take what is happening in the health sector as a crisis,” Zimbabwe Association
of Doctors for Human Rights spokesperson Fortune Nyamande said.
“Leaders must desist from these kinds of approaches. They
are not appreciating the gravity of the crisis. People are dying, newborn
babies are dying, mothers are dying while giving birth and such utterances will
not solve the crisis.
“The Vice-President should apply his mind deeply and bring
stakeholders together to dialogue out of the crisis and find a win-win
situation. It is time this issue is taken seriously. People are dying and we
would have expected a solution from the VP.”
Soon after touching down in Harare at the weekend,
Chiwenga, who in April last year fired over 16 000 striking nurses at public
hospitals before government later reversed the decision following an outcry,
said: “We have to work, we have the resources. We must utilise them and work
and build our country. That’s the message we want to give our people that it
will not help now and again to go on strike. You strike against what? Let’s
work and build our country.”
His statements come as public hospital doctors and Harare
council nurses have downed tools over slave wages while most civil servants
have declared incapacitation due to the harsh economic environment.
Chiwenga also fired potshots at the MDC, accusing
opposition-run councils of sleeping on duty, a comment that attracted anger
from the Nelson Chamisa-led party.
He labelled the MDC as having a “Genghis Khan mentality” in
apparent reference to Khan, founder and first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire,
which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.
“To the others, it will not help to have that Genghis Khan
mentality. He wanted to conquer the world and went through the ancient desert.
All the horses perished, all the men perished, so why would you want to do
that?” Chiwenga said.
MDC shadow deputy minister for local government, Clifford
Hlatshwayo, said Chiwenga had spent a lot of time outside the country and his
comment on the opposition’s failure to run councils was misinformed.
“If it’s Costantino Guvheya, I know he has not been in the
country for a long time. I hear he is not feeling well and he was getting
medical attention outside Zimbabwe, I am told in China,” Hlatshwayo said.
“Obviously, he is not in touch with what is on the ground.
What he knows is to squander taxpayers’ money in China while the people here
are dying without medication. Obviously he is misinformed.
“The Zanu PF illegitimate government is the one that has
run down this country. “The MDC-run councils are trying by all means to deliver
smart services to the residents.”
Hlatshwayo blamed interference by Zanu PF for hindering
service delivery in MDC-run councils.
“Interference from the central government is at an alarming
rate. The interference is very unnecessary and illegal. The Constitution of
Zimbabwe is clear. It states that councils are managed by elected officials of
council. But because Zanu PF lost in the elections, they are trying to impose
themselves in MDC-run urban local authorities,” he said.
The MDC controls 28 out of 32 urban local authorities.
Political analyst Alexander Rusero said: “General
Chiwenga’s return pauses a lot of paradoxes vis-a-vis the practical challenges
that Zimbabwe is currently facing. His first shot was to dismiss the
justification of striking at workplace, something coming as a blow, especially
to the health sector whose grievances remain genuine, but with no urgency to
settle from government.
“Yet he is coming from treatment in China which, without
proper remuneration of doctors attending him, he could have died. That being
said, a lot of hype on Chiwenga’s return and expectations as whispered in
corridors of power will soon be demystified with time because he remains simply
a Zanu PF functionary who cannot be better.” Newsday
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