The ruling ZANU-PF party has described as “pathetic” the walkout from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday by opposition MDC Members of Parliament.
The opposition MPs walked out on Mnangagwa for the second time in as many addresses insisting he is an illegitimate leader following the highly contested July 2018 elections.
Following their stance, Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda has reacted angrily, ordering that their allowances be withheld for the next five months.
In a statement, ZANU-PF Secretary for Information, Simon Khaya-Moyo said; “The pathetic antics exhibited yesterday by the opposition MDC-Alliance confirmed the true nature of this disoriented puppet organisation masquerading as a democratic outfit.
“Their clumsy walkout during His Excellency, President Cde E.D. Mnangagwa’s address served the Ideal purpose of exposing them as a clueless so-called democratic movement with hardly any interest of Zimbabwe and its heroic people. The bid is to pander to the machinations of their Western founders and funders whose interest have always been inimical to Zimbabwe,” said Khaya-Moyo.
The Nelson Chamisa-led opposition has failed to recognise Mnangagwa as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe, arguing that they were “robbed’ off an election victory last year.
However, the ruling party said the allegations are hypocritical.
“For MDC-Alliance to lay claims of illegitimacy on the Office of His Excellency, the President Cde E.D Mnangagwa is not only hypocritical but fallacious as it borders on hallucination.
“The revolutionary ZANU PF would like to remind the MDC-Alliance and its cohorts that a harmonized election was conducted on 31 July 2018 where the patriotic masses of Zimbabwe gave their Party of choice, the revolutionary ZANU PF, an unassailable mandate to govern this great nation. The revolutionary party has a two-thirds majority against the toss insignificant number,” the statement further stated
Despite the walkout, Mnangagwa called on all parties which participated in the 2018 elections to join the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) to discuss on how to take the country out of the murky waters it finds itself in.
Chamisa has on several occasions turned down the offer alleging that the “legitimacy crisis” must be resolved first and calling on Mnangagwa to “admit to losing the election”.
