Cyclone ED: Helicopter airlifts sofas for Chiwenga, Mnangagwa..Pictures from Chimanimani

A picture of army personnel offloading sofas for use by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga in Chimanimani has caused a social media stir with people questioning the logic behind bringing luxury in a place where pupils spent three nights with dead bodies in a form 1 classroom.

The Cyclone Ida victims were buried in wooden boxes and improvised coffins made from vegetable crates.

St Charles Lwanga High School students who travelled to Marondera to bid farewell to one of theirs recounted how they spent three days with their colleagues’ corpses in the classroom, waiting for the government rescue teams to take them to safety.

“After retrieving the bodies, they were placed in a classroom as we waited for rescue. It was terrible and scary. The bodies were lying in the classrooms covered with blankets,” one of the students, who was visibly traumatised, recounted.

The students, after realising that there was no rescue for almost three days, embarked on an uncertain journey to Skyline for safety.

They recounted that some villagers and the boarding master made some makeshift coffins to ferry the corpses to safety.

“We made it on our own to Skyline. No one helped us. Some were taking pictures of us. It was disturbing,” another student said.

While observers think the crises is far from over our leaders can not live without luxuries even for few hours.

zwnews