Broke? Mugabe donates snacks, biscuits, worth $1900 for Tsholotsho floods

Zimbabwe’s ailing leader, President Robert Mugabe has donated — of all things — biscuits and non-essential snacks to Cyclone Dineo victims in Tsholotsho who recently lost everything they had to floods.

Mugabe’s latest insult came into the public domain after Higher Education minister and Tsholotsho North legislator, Jonathan Moyo, published on social media the list of people and organisations who have assisted the impoverished flood victims.

The full list of goods which the president donated encompassed 1 000 packs of Zapnax, 1 000 units of bottled mineral water and 1 000 packs of 2kg biscuits to the more than 900 flood victims who are temporarily housed in overcrowded tents at Sipepa, in Tsholotsho.

The goods have a total value of $1900!

The donation came as the displaced villagers have appealed for more aid in the form of substantial food, tents, blankets and sanitary wear among other urgent requirements.

The light Zapnax snacks, which are mainly consumed by children, retail at 10 cents a packet.

Tsholotsho is among the areas that were hardest hit by devastating floods which left a trail of destruction around the country, sweeping away bridges and destroying homesteads, livestock and other belongings.

Analysts and opposition figures roundly criticised Mugabe’s donations yesterday, saying whoever had organised the gifts had exposed the president as “insensitive” to the suffering of Zimbabweans.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC said the donation was “an insult” to the displaced families, who are expecting “real help” from the government.

“It’s a mockery and an insult to the people of Tsholotsho. Mugabe spent $2,5 million on his birthday bash in Matobo a few weeks ago but doesn’t have the common decency and morality of, at the very least, spending a similar amount of money on flood victims.

“This is a very big joke which is in extreme bad taste! President … Mugabe should also have personally visited the flood victims in Tsholotsho to see for himself the extent of human suffering and misery that these villagers are going through,” MDC spokesperson, Obert Gutu, said.

“It’s arrogance of the highest order for him to send the victims donated biscuits, Zapnaxs and bottled mineral water. This shows Mugabe’s utter contempt for the toiling masses of Zimbabwe.