Ray Nkosi | President Emmerson Mnangagwa has thrown away regalia designed by former First Lady Grace Mugabe who always bragged of being a fashionista, which she launched just before her husband Robert was ousted from power by the military.

Mnangagwa launches his own new reglia just when exiled professor Jonathan Moyo took to twitter telling the world that tax payers had footed the bill for the expensive at $2.3million China jaunt, with the budget including the new campaign materials.

Grace launched her new regalia at the 2016 Zanu PF conference in Masvingo explaining to delegates; “We decided to come up with this design as the women’s league so that we can fundraise for our activities. The philosophy behind the fabric design is that we wanted to do away with the razor on our cloth and replace it with the map of Zimbabwe, which represents a tea pot from which we all drink.”

However, Obert Mpofu told the local Daily News that Zanu PF was discarding all regalia that has Mugabe and his wife Grace’s face on it, explaining that the party was now ready with the new regalia that was approved by its politburo.

“We are ready now, we have regalia for our supporters and it will soon be ready for distribution,” he said.

Zanu PF insiders say the paraphernalia, which includes caps, T-shirts and scarfs, among several others, was imported from China.

While Mpofu would not confirm their source, he admitted that some of the regalia had been acquired from outside the country.

“Where we acquired the regalia is surely the business of the party but I must say the majority we sourced from local companies although in other instances we got donations from outside our borders,” he said.

“What has been delaying…is we were still deliberating on the design,” Mpofu said.

Sources in the ruling party’s procurement department told the this publication that the first consignment from China was expected in the country last week.

“A team responsible for the acquisition of the items led by Danny Musukuma was in China recently and it was expected that about 8 million T-shirts, caps and scarfs will arrive in the country on Thursday in time for the campaign that will begin in earnest after May 5 when we hold primary elections,” a source privy to the goings on said on condition of anonymity.

Mpofu said new party regalia was not only meant for the forthcoming elections.

“We always acquire regalia for our supporters even when there is no election, so it is not about elections but about our identity as a party,” he said when pressed to say why they had purchased 8 million when the number of registered voters is about 5 million.

Zanu PF supporters are no longer allowed to put on the regalia that was used during the Mugabe era, despite the fact that Grace, who was the women’s league secretary, had just launched her own designs for the Zanu PF regalia.