A Rolls Royce Phantom worth almost P4 million landed in Harare this past weekend, raising even the eyebrows of the British where the pricey vehicle was purchased.
The posh car reportedly belongs to deputy Sports Minister, Tinomudaishe Machakaire who decided to part with US$770, 000 (about P7.7m) for his new toy.
This frightening figure includes purchase price, shipping costs and duty.
According to local news site, ZimLive, this extravagance by the junior Minister is the latest illustration of the gulf between Zimbabwe’s poor and super rich political elites.
I couldn’t agree more!
The appalling thing about some of these super rich politicians is that they have no shame to flaunt their ill gotten wealth as if they really want to rub it in the faces of the poor.
Machakaire is only 39 years old but seems to have amassed a small fortune within a short space of time mainly because he is related to another local millionaire who is a close ally of the presidium.
These people are awarded multi dollar government tenders that enable them to loot as much as they can which then makes it easy for them to buy super expensive cars.
Opposition parties, foreign governments have cried out loud about high levels of corruption in the country which is harming the economy and affecting the ordinary men and women but these cries have yielded nothing.
Instead, those in power continue to loot with no conscience and splash the money on their expensive lifestyles while the poor continue to struggle even to access basic health care.
Meanwhile, the ruling party has basically started campaigning ahead of the 2023 general elections.
On Tuesday, the Information Minister announced that the government is set to introduce a Presidential rural poultry support scheme that will distribute at least 1.8m chicks by 2023.
Yet another tender to supply the chicks, which will again be given to those who rub shoulders with the who’s who of Zimbabwe!
Anyway, imagine the official launch of this programme with President Emmerson Mnangagwa handing over the chicks in front of cameras with so much deafening clucking and quaking from the baby chickens.
Having been ‘empowered’ through these chicks, the rural folks should then vote ‘as expected’ come election time.
It does not matter whether the chickens will have survived or not, what matters is that they would have been ‘empowered’.
And by the way, since I now live in the rural areas, I would gladly accept the chicks if I am deemed to qualify – but they must never think I would be charmed to cast my vote in their favour.
In any case, such schemes are financed with our taxes so I m