Zimbabwe ruling party burdened with 5 million Mugabe T-shirts - report

Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, is saddled with millions of party paraphernalia that they cannot use in the current political campaign, the privately-owned Daily News reports.

The inability to use the over five million branded T-shirts is because it bears the image of deposed leader Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The country is in campaign mode ahead of the July 30 polls – the first time Mugabe will not be contesting.

The report noted that acquisition of the materials currently packed at the headquarters were made before Mugabe’s unexpected removal last year and that it was facilitated by former minister of finance and Zanu-PF’s secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo from China.

“Chombo had bought T-shirt and other regalia from China preparing for the extraordinary congress and also elections, but then that was not to be as Mugabe was removed before the congress.

“Now the T-shirt are gathering dust at the party headquarters,” an unnamed Zanu-PF source was quoted as saying.

The nonagenarian who ruled Zimbabwe for over three decades was deposed after a military intervention in November 2017. He was due to be the flag bearer of the party for elections slated for later this month.

His dismissed former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa subsequently returned from exile in South Africa