Byo24 News
By Stephen Jakes
24th May 2017
MDC senior official David Coltart who is also a former Education Minister has said Zimbabwe 37 years after its independence still has no single serviceable plane amid the ban of its dangerous plane from flying into European zones.
He said although the ruining party (Zanu PF) controlled press has not made much of it, President Robert Mugabe is presently in Mexico attending a UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.
“It is highly ironic that he flew in there on a chartered plane (similar to the one pictured below) because 37 years into independence there is not a single serviceable Zimbabwean plane to take him there. In fact, one of the reasons the EU has barred Air Zimbabwe from flying into Europe is because of that fact, and because our radar systems do not meet EU standards, in other words, they are unsafe and could cause a disaster,” said the former minister.
“In the last few decades, Zimbabwe has faced a number of men made disasters including hyperinflation, the collapse of our economy, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of our skilled professionals and technicians including doctors and nurses – all caused by the ruinous policies of the party Mugabe leads. In addition, the same ruining party has been woefully incapable of dealing with the natural disasters this region has suffered during the same period including droughts and floods.”
Coltart said the use of an expensive charter plane to fly Mugabe to Mexico is emblematic of all that is wrong with this regime: the collapse of once fine institutions like Air Zimbabwe, a shocking notion of where our priorities lie, a callous disregard for the needs of the people and the ongoing pretence that all is well in our nation.
“In today’s press Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa claimed that Zanu PF has created 2,2 million jobs since 2013, something everyone, with even half a brain, knows is simply a brazen lie,” he said.
“The reality is, of course, something quite different to what both Mr Mugabe will tell the UN in Cancun and what Mnangagwa is saying back home. Our economy is on its knees; had we not had a wonderful rainy season this year Zimbabwe would have faced a catastrophic disaster. The blushes of the ruining party have been saved for one more season, but the reality is that the poor economic and humanitarian fundamentals have not changed one iota.”
He said the best Disaster Risk Reduction strategy Zimbabwe can take is to end the disastrous policies consistently implemented by Zanu PF since it came to power in 1980.
“But that will only be achieved when Zimbabweans themselves wake up to this reality; those democrats opposed to Zanu PF and its corrupt policies must form a common front and those flirting with this appalling regime must stop if they want to see our beloved nation reach its true potential,” Coltart said.