President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday responded to critics who have accused his administration of responding slowly to Cyclone Idai.
Mnangagwa urged people to ignore people who want to take advantage of the situation for political mileage. Said Mnangagwa:
You should ignore those with the ivory tower mentality who want to take advantage of the situation for political mileage. In any family kunowanika vasingahwisisi vamwe vachihwisisa. Ndosaka muchiona vanohwisisa vachizotonga. Tisanetseka nevanotaura mashoko ekusvora. We must continue to listen to our people to find out what they need to restore their communities and their families.
Civil society and politicians have blamed Government for its slow response to Cyclone Idai. Nelson Chamisa, through his spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda, said the disaster should not have claimed so many lives considering that warnings about the cyclone were issued well in advance. Election Resource Centre (ERC) boss Tawanda Chimhini said government should have been proactive considering the country has experienced similar disasters before.
More: Herald
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Its not time for cheap politics its time to pull resources and rescue those affected and looking for those missing.
Natural disasters like this one do not happen often in Zimbabwe. The government should take this opportunity to make sure that they have strategies in place incase we experience another natural disaster next time. The blame game does not take us anywhere. It’s high time we start acting and learn from other countries if not continents. It’s painful to see people die because of negligence on the part of responsible authorities. A lot of ignorance was displayed during the Cyclone IDAI time, not only by the responsible authorities but also but the Zimbabweans in general. People need to be educated about natural disasters and measures should be put in place. The rescue team was supposed to be deployed in those areas well before the the Cyclone. We can not expect to see help coming when the rains have subsided. Help should be rendered during the Cyclone. I am surprised to see Chamisa trying to play the clever one after every thing is over. Where was he before people died. If he was that SMART we were supposed to see him before the disaster asking people to vacate and lobbying for emergence equipment to be sent to the venues. NO CREDIT FOR YOU CHAMISA. YOU ARE EQUALLY DUMM.
Personally I am not into politics and I have nothing to do with both Munangagwa or Chamisa. What I feel is let us take this disaster as a lesson and move forward, put serious measures in place. Stop dirty politics at the expense of people. Its most unfortunate the people in Chimanimani can easily be bribed, they lost their loved ones and someone comes afterwards with seemingly sweet words and they elulate. They problem is that they don’t know that they have a right to safety. Right to protection. What people need right now is to exercise their mandatory right.
The problem with Zimbabweans is that they put every blame on the President. There is what is called delegation. The president has ministries in place and those ministries should be alert and they are the ones who are specialised in their areas and as such they were supposed to take action and communicate to the president if they felt they did not have enough capacity. People are not doing their duties.
A funeral and a burial process is not a dumb actors pantomime. Mourners will talk and even comment revealingly about the dead’s right and sterling decisions and moments as well as their wrong decisions. Mourners even comment and reprimand elders who instead of coming to take charge of the burial, go visiting their in-laws, and comments reflect their reluctant family leadership skills. Mourners will also comment and applaud the younger family members who find their time to rush to the funeral and are found having taken the heavy and weighty loads of burdens of taking charge is the preparations of the burial, and often burying the dead relative, with the reluctant elders arriving at time of the last shovel thrown onto the mound of sand of the grave and if not a lot latter. These comments, are not meant to confer cheap mileage to the younger members for taking charge of the burial in the absence of the reluctant elders. Any way , if the youth, for their courage deserve lauding with platitudes, let them be given that deserved mileage, for they are in any case family leaders of the future. Zipping up people from talking is unAfrican and not typical of how we mourn and relive selves of the pain of it all. Denying illustrious youthful elders, for their courage and sense of time and place amounts to dictatorial denial. Such behaviour stirs up debate and more debate at the funeral and beyond, stalking and crystallising the urgent need to replace the reluctant elderly family leaders. Taking note of comments raised for future and allowing accolades to be bestowed on the less reluctant youthful family leaders reflects tolerance and peace. And this should be encouraged and applauded.
May i know how i can access assistance for my parents who were also left homeless in chipinge, Madhinga farm No/ 19 Mt selinda.