This followed an outburst of anger from Zimbabweans who
blasted government officials for their penchant to showcase opulence in a sea
of poverty.
GVE London, one of the United Kingdom’s leading independent
suppliers of luxury vehicles, took to microblogging site Twitter last week
saying they were delivering the luxurious vehicle to one of their top clients
in Zimbabwe who is a minister, but did not mention the name.
This raised speculation that it could have been Youth
deputy minister Tino Machakaire.
“GVE London would like to apologise for any
misunderstanding caused by a recent video posted on our social media implying
that a vehicle we recently sold was being sold to a minister in Zimbabwe,” the
company said in a terse statement.
“This was incorrect. The employee that made the statement
was not involved in the sale of the vehicle and did not know that this vehicle
was actually being sold to a private individual. We apologise for any
inconvenience caused.”
Zimbabweans had reacted angrily, accusing the Zanu PF elite
of being insensitive to the plight of the ordinary people, although the Wedza
South Zanu PF MP, according to his supporters, could afford any type of
luxurious car due to his financial muscle acquired before getting into
politics.
However, the ruling Zanu PF party and government officials
fell over each other defending the purchase, saying it was everyone’s right to
buy any vehicle of their choice as long as they could afford.
A British Liberal Democrat and member of the House of
Lords, Jonathan Oates, on Monday said he would raise questions in Parliament
over how the transaction was handled, with the aim of forcing the UK government
to act if evidence of wrongdoing was unearthed.
He said he would also ask his government whether there had
been discussions between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Bank of England
on whether foreign currency regulations were followed during the transaction.
Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi immediately hit back,
telling NewsDay that the British are hypocrites.
Togarepi said he would, in turn, raise a motion in
Parliament for the UK government to return what “they stole from us”.
Machakaire runs a successful transport and logistics
business trading as Tinmac with the latest trucks running into several
hundreds. His business straddles the southern Africa region. Newsday
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