By Talent Gondo| Zanu Pf yesterday handed over part of over 300 campaign vehicles sourced by the party for its election campaign to its district and provincial leadership in Manicaland as the party gears for the watershed polls.
The development comes a few days after the party handed over 84 vehicles to chiefs, in a move which analysts have descibed as “sickening vote buying”.
The vehicles, whose cost is unknown comes as the country is grappling with foreign currency shortages and a broke economy, which last month saw nurses embark on a nationwide strike that left the health delivery system on its knees.
Speaking at the party’s election campaign launch in Harare (Friday), Politburo member and Secretary for Transport, July Moyo revealed that the vehicles would be distributed to all the party’s administrative districts, provincial structures and winning candidates.
“People need transport, ” said Moyo, adding that the party would give over 200 more vehicles to “winning candidates”.
“There are seven vehicles that have already been branded that the President will unveil and those to be unveiled today are destined for Manicaland.
Another batch of cars is for winning candidates. There are 210 of them,” said Moyo.
Former Higher Education minister and Zanu Pf strategist, Jonathan Moyo is on record revealing that his former party abuses state resources for its election campaign strategies.
According to Moyo, Zanu Pf will this year alone splash US$70 million on election campaign material including regalia and vehicles for party members and all the registered 226 chiefs.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last month repossesed a campaign vehicle given to the Former Mashonaland East Minister of State for Provincial Affairs who is now leading a splinter opposition party National Patriotic Front, Retired Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri towards the 2013 elections.
Mutinhiri was forced to hand over the vehicle after two men from the Office the President visited his home asking him to hand it over since it was needed by the party for campaigning purposes.
Former Zanu Pf Secretary for Transport who is now the party’s National Chairperson, Oppah Muchinguri is on record refusing to disclose the source of funds for the vehicles arguing that such kind of information was “party business which cannot be disclosed to the media.”
Opposition political parties described the purchase of vehicles at the expense of suffering citizens as a reflection that Zanu Pf was an “immoral and insensitive party”.