ANALYSTS yesterday ridiculed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s five-nation tour of Eurasia at a time the country was imploding due to severe economic difficulties, as well as his penchant for luxury as he used an expensive luxury Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft for the trip.
They said it was unnecessary for Mnangagwa to exhibit signs of profligacy by chartering a luxury plane – one of its kind – manufactured five years ago at a cost of £230 million and costs $74 000 per hour for hire until return, according to Business Insider, when the main reasons for mutiny yesterday in the country were economic hardships.
Mnangagwa’s trips will cover Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Davos in Switzerland, where he will be attending the World Economic Forum. Government claims that these trips will unlock economic value as the countries were more economically stable than Zimbabwe.
Given that Mnangagwa will likely spend two weeks away, government could folk out US$25 million for hiring the plane in addition to hefty allowances for himself and his large entourage.
Asked to explain why Mnangagwa would go on State visits when already the signs of implosion showed before the trip, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo curtly responded: “I will only issue a statement about the situation in the country tomorrow.”
Political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya said it was frightening that Mnangagwa would leave the country in its current state of distabilisation.
“We know that Zanu PF has a history of intransigence and they do not have a conscience because it is frightening that he left the country in a state of destabilisation after announcing the fuel hikes – and how does he even know what is going to happen because there could be another coup being planned while he is away?” Ngwenya said.
“This shows that Mnangagwa does not have the depth to comprehend the magnitude of the problems in Zimbabwe, and actually, former President Robert Mugabe might have been very arrogant, but his thinking capacity was better because he understood what the problems in Zimbabwe meant.”
