OPPOSITION MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa last week, once again, suffered the ignominy of embarrassing himself through his latest lie that the success of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme was as a result of what he claimed were ‘donated’ vaccines.
During the same week, the nation was subjected to the now disgusting lies by Douglas Coltart, son to former Selous Scout kingpin David Coltart, when the excitable ‘human rights’ lawyer hysterically sought, but desperately failed, to convince the world that yet another ‘abduction’ had taken place in the country.
No sane mind should be surprised by these antics.
We are now firmly in that wretched season of lies and misinformation; all to bring a Zimbabwe that is economically on the rise back under the global spotlight for the wrong reasons as has often been the case in the past.
That wretched past is long gone as Zimbabwe is ticking all the boxes with masterly finesse as seen by the hive of activity across the country in all facets of development.
And the world now knows better.
Which is why it is important to take Chamisa and his handler, Doug Coltart, head on.
We will, of course, not let his father David off the hook for frothing at the mouth over the US$961 million the country received from the IMF under the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) programme.
We start with the hopelessly out-of-sorts Chamisa.
Where, in 2018’s harmonised elections campaign, the nation apportioned his lies to childhood exuberance, three years later, his antics are now in fact morphing into a dangerous trend that should be attributed to sell-out tendencies and a desperate but grossly pathetic ploy to ascend to power outside the ballot box.
On the whole, this is simply unacceptable.
After spending more than a week making irritating noises about his invitation to the inauguration of President Hakainde Hichilema, Chamisa went to Zambia where he was interviewed by a Zambian television station on Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 vaccination programme.
True to form, Chamisa claimed that the COVID-19 doses in Zimbabwe had been ‘donated’, adding that Government should not be given credit for the resounding success of the programme.
This came at a time the likes of the IMF and WHO have ranked Zimbabwe among Africa’s top three countries that are leading in the vaccination programme.
The other two countries making huge strides are Egypt and Morocco.
The IMF and WHO have given Zimbabwe a rating of 98 percent for its vaccination efforts.
Zimbabwe, which is targeting vaccinating at least 60 percent of the 10 million population to reach herd immunity, has so far purchased over 85 percent of the required doses using local resources.
The statistics speak for themselves.
The country has so far vaccinated
2,4 million people with Government having set aside US$100 million for the purchase of the vaccines.
Information gathered from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development shows that as at Friday last week, Government had spent US$93,2 million on procurement of doses and syringes.
The statistics show that Government sourced 6,2 million vaccines from Sinovac, which has also donated 500 000 doses; five million from Sinopharm; while India and Russia have donated
35 000 Covaxin and 50 000 Sputnik doses respectively.
The Ministry says Government has purchased 5,2 million syringes from China Pharmaceutical Trade Corporation which availed 1,2 million, with Sinopharm and Sinovac availing three million and one million respectively.
Sources close to Chamisa say he was ‘clandestinely’ vaccinated at a Western embassy in Harare in the middle of the night.
While Chamisa was harping about the COVID-19 programme, his master Doug Coltart was up to his usual tricks again, claiming that another abduction of an opposition activist had been orchestrated by the country’s security forces.
We know the import of that insanity.
This month there will be the UN General Assembly meeting while next month President Emmerson Mnangagwa will be in London where several bilateral agreements will either be signed or revived.
That does not bode well for the Rhodesian insipid aspirations.
Let us hear what the son of the Selous Scout had to say.
“I’m informed by the family of SOLOMON CHANENGETA that he was abducted by 6 men in plainclothes claiming to be soldiers from 451 Muzaradope Street, Karoi at about 10pm this evening & driven away in a Honda Fit. If anyone has information please contact +2778 1769063,” he posted on his Twitter account on August 28 2021.
How he arrogated himself the duties of the police is a mystery that can be solved by his previous involvement in the so-called abductions, especially the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) president Peter Magombeyi saga.
ZHDA is an outfit that is fully funded by the US, and Doug Coltart is the organisation’s handler.
The following day, Doug Coltart was forced to eat humble pie as the truth about the abduction unravelled.
“UPDATE from Solomon Chanengeta’s brother: ‘Your message worked. We found him at the police station. After your tweet they took him to the station. I’m advised he was questioned about his leaving the military & is still in custody at Karoi police station; no charges yet’,” he posted on Twitter.
Well.
We will lay bare all the details on the matter very soon.
Now we give his father the attention that he does not deserve but which is crucial in unpacking the anger that is stemming from the Rhodesian element in the country, especially on the successes that are being scored on the economic front.
“This is not a ‘vote of confidence’ – every developing country in the world is being given a portion of this fund, including terrible juntas like Myanmar,” said the embittered Coltart while conveniently ‘forgetting’ to mention that the same IMF, together with the World Bank, have said Zimbabwe’s economic growth is projected at 7,8 percent if not more.
“It is being paid out rather like a vaccine to everyone not because they are good but because the IMF believes that this injection is necessary to stabilise the world’s economy.”
He could not stomach the bitterness.
He added: “The IMF would have been far wiser to insist that this money be directed towards health, education, housing etc – focused on the poor and marginalised of our society. It should also insist on full accountability for every last cent of the funds.
“The record of the ZANU PF Government is that they brazenly steal and waste Zimbabwean taxpayers money; how much more so will they do to international money like this paid with seemingly few strings attached.”
As the country forges ahead with its sound economic programmes, we should all be wary of some rotten apples in our midst.