ZANU PF has dispatched a team led by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to the East to seek financial and other material resources for the country in a counter-move to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's three-week trip to Europe and the United States.
President Robert Mugabe told a closed session of the central committee meeting in the capital on Wednesday that Mnangagwa's team, which includes Women's League chief Oppah Muchinguri, was sent to the party's traditional friends when it became apparent that Tsvangirai was failing to get financial aid during his recent tour.
Mugabe made this disclosure after central committee members expressed concern that Tsvangirai seemed to have embarked on the trip to raise money for social ministries which were under the control of ministers from his MDC-T party.
Central committee members who confided in the Zimbabwe Independent said the Zanu PF team would, among other countries, visit China, Russia and Malaysia, in search of financial and material aid to revive the comatose economy.
Mugabe, the sources revealed, said Tsvangirai had sought the trip and promised to secure the U$8,3 billion to revive the economy.
"They (Tsvangirai and his entourage) said they will bring (back) US$8,3 billion, but nothing came," one of the sources quoted Mugabe saying. "That is the weapon we now have. They have gone West, now we go East. Already we have people who went to lay the way. This is a party delegation which has gone led by Emmerson Mnangagwa and Muchinguri."
The sources said Mugabe was upbeat about a favourable response, adding that the aid would be used to prop up Zanu PF and present it to the electorate as the only party that delivers on their wishes.
"We will certainly be delivering much more than they (MDC-T) are able to deliver," Mugabe was quoted as saying.
Tsvangirai's three-week tour of the US and Europe yielded mainly promises of aid only after the inclusive government meets benchmarks such as upholding of human rights, media and legal reforms, drafting of a new constitution and the holding of free and fair elections.
At the start of his trip, Tsvangirai's party suggested that he would be able to mobilise between US$700 million and US$1 billion, but he managed to raise just over US$200 million -- most of which would be channelled through non-governmental organisations and is mostly humanitarian aid.
Besides the US, Tsvangirai visited Denmark, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Britain, France, Sweden and the Belgian capital Brussels, seat of the European Union. He was expected to end his tour in France last night.
Meanwhile, there was discord in the Tsvangirai delegation, which comprised Tourism minister Walter Mzembi and Economic Development minister Elton Mangoma.
Reports suggested that the delegation lacked a well-thought out plan on who attends which meetings and there was no liaison between the team and Zimbabwean embassies they visited.
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Dispatched a team to spend what little money Tsvangirai managed to raise on weapons with which to suppress the people of Zimbabwe, you mean. Oh well, you know what they say about fools and their money.
What is criminal Mugabe doing with his illgotten fortune? CIA published materials indicate that bloodstained Mugabe is the continent's richest man!
That's no joke! He has over the 29 years of his lunatic rule amassed vast amounts of money by various crook means. Most of that money is banked in RSA, Libya, Swaziland, Hong Kong, mainland China and North Korea.
Informed observers say that just a third of his wealth will wipe off all government debts!
Unfortunately, Zimbos are too tolerant to force criminal Mugabe to hand over the illgotten wealth!
What a cheek now that he is sending a delegation to the East to beg for aid?
Zimbabwe without criminal Mugabe and his thugs has all the incredients to rise over the challenges of the immediate future.
So let's get rid of the illegitimate president of a rotten banana republic so that the GNU can do what Mugabe was not able to deliver over the past 29 years.
I doubt Mugabe could give the wealth back even if he wanted to. It's been burned long ago on efforts to convert Zimbabwe to a socialist state, on mansions in foreign countries for the Great Leader Mugabe to escape to once the ZANU-PF decide he's more liability than asset, and on all variety of crazy boondoggles, such as the Nigerian lady who conned him out of $25 million to invest in her magical abilities to squeeze gasoline out of ordinary rocks.
It's spent and gone forever, and now it falls to Tsvangirai to gnerate wealth out of nothing but the dirt of Zimbabwe once again. He's actually been doing a pretty good job, but it will all go to waste as soon as Mugabe decides he needs that wealth for himself or to invest in another scam, and then it will all be taken away from the people of Zimbabwe once more.
Prem, do you have evidence to these allegations. Why are you afraid to lay the evidence bare and let Zimbabweans judge their leadership. I also hear that Biti and MT have amassed so much wealth over the last 10yrs and they have acquired mansions in SA and Australia, Anybody with evidence please put it forward so that these politicians who purpot to love the people of Zimbabwe so much are exposed for what they are.
I have no confidence on the judiciary since criminal Mugabe and Gono have bribed most of them with state goodies !
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