Tsvangirai Refuses To Pay Lunch Bill
After addressing a rally like this one in Mucheke last year, Morgan Tsvangirai went to a hotel in Masvingo Province for lunch with his delegation and met with local officials, running up a bill of more than US$2 000. Which he promptly refused to pay and is still refusing to pay because his party now says this is one of the perks of being in the Inclusive Government!
Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 December 2009
The MDC-T, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, is refusing to pay for lunch that the Prime Minister and party president had at a Hotel in Masvingo during a rally held in Mucheke in 2008!
The MDC-T has told management at the Mandava A1 Hotel that they are now part of the Government and the use of the hotel and the food served is one of the perks of ruling Zimbabwe.
And we thought that it was only Mugabe and his crew who are used to taking things by force.
MDC-Tsvangirai Provincial Chairperson in the Masvingo Province, where the free lunch was eaten, says the demand for payment from the hotel "came to us as a joke." Wilstaff Stemere, the Provincial Chair, told state media in a telephone interview:
"The issue of money came to us as joke when the hotel management told that they are charging us per person who was having lunch and attending meetings with the (party) president (Morgan Tsvangirai) and we are not going to pay them."
Just like that?
Hotel Manager Banda Chatsaka confirms that the Prime Minister is refusing to pay for the lunch he ate. "I can confirm that they owe us money that they have not paid and we have tried to engage in dialogue on how they can best settle the debt and we seem to be hitting a brick wall."
I'll say!
The Prime Minister and his party are already revealing their true colours, letting power that they do not have go to their heads.
Is this any way for a party that believes in good governance, transparency and honesty in politics to behave? What happened to decency? Shame?
I do not really care what anyone says, but this sort of attitude and behaviour is the same that leads "leaders" and "ruling parties" to think that it is okay for them to confiscate other people's property simply because they are in power.
It is but a short hop and skip from this to invading productive farms and profitable companies, running them into the ground and then crying "sanctions!".
I have spoken before of the Animal Farm syndrome in Zimbabwean politics today. With things such as these happening it becomes even less clear which is the pig and which is the human in this circus of politicians that is running Zimbabwe (into the ground).
It is to be hoped that the Prime Minister, as the person who actually consumed the lunch, will pay the US$2 000-odd bill and salvage his reputation. As for his party officials, they are no better than ZANU PF people. There is no other way to look at it: this is theft and corruption.
CHIMHOSVA Says:
ReplyDeleteThe "chef" mentality is not the preserve of Zanu PF, it would seem! The MDC is a product of Zanu PF, if any Zimbabwean has the good memory to remember that Tsvangirai is Zanu PF through and through. In 1995 when he was pressuring workers to vote Zanu PF, he stated clearly that no-one was fit to replace Robert Mugabe! He seems to have transmitted the same cult of personality to the MDC. It is rather depressing when you speak to MDC zealots and see how they blindly worship Tsvangirai. The man can do no wrong in their eyes despite all the strategic blunders that have become synonymous with the MDC under the incompetent if not pathetic leadership of Tsvangirai.
The current crop of political leadership in Zimbabwe is corrupt as evidenced by this report. No Zimbabwean politician at the moment has got personal property that is justifiable by the US$150.00 salary that they claim to get. In any civilised society that alone is cause for investigation by revenue authorities (TAX MAN).
If the TAX MAN is unleashed in Zimbabwe, there will be a lot of people in jail. Tsvangirai himself has never been gainfully employed in his life but the man is stinking rich. The MDC has no right to label Zanu PF corrupt!
May God Look after Zimbabwe until Sane people Lead it to Salvation!!
Why cant people like Makoni team up with some moderate heavyweights and form a party with technocrats to take Zimbabwe to greater heights.This MDC-T circus is a waste of time. The day they miraculously take power in Zimbabwe will be the saddest day in Zimbabwe.Not only are they corrupt like Zanu pf, but they are clueless of what to do to take the country out of the mess its in right now. maPuppet anonetsa mukoma Danny.Mwari haasi benzi, he did not allow them to take over last year for a reason.
ReplyDelete@Abel: The MDC only knows one culture and pays lip service to the rest. I have a problem with the attitude pervasive in that party which says evenif Morgan Tsvangirai is caught with a bloody knife standing over a dead body and freely confesses, he must not be criticised or even arrested because he is fighting Mugabe!
ReplyDeleteIt is a culture of entitlement learnt squarely and solely from ZANU PF: we suffered fighting colonialists therefore we must be left alone to plunder and if you criticise us you want the colonialists back.
In MDC, it is now: we fought Mugabe and we are blameless, we can get away with murder and we must never be questioned, examined or criticised. If you criticise us you want Mugabe's dictatorship to continue.
I genuinely fail to understand such people. I really do. I struggle to even accept the fact that they have a functioning brain because even in a family, a child can clearly see when a parent has gone off the rails and can say "Apa Baba matadza".
@Chimhosva - Like I said to Abel above, you are right on the money, the culture is a ZANU PF one and I still find it very odd that, from his days as Political Commissar of ZANU PF at Trojan Mine and ZCTU, Morgan Tsvangirai still has not denounced or turned in his (valid) ZANU PF membership card!!