President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s visit to Chimanimani on Wednesday generated debate that had little to do with his visit there.
Social media was awash with pictures of black leather sofas that were airlifted to Skyline where he met the survivors of Tropical Cyclone Idai. The authenticity of the images that generated the debate could, however, not be established.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Ndavaningi Mnagwana said that people should not waste time talking about luxuries such as sofas when the country is grieving. Said Mnagwana:
Should we be talking of sofas when so many of our fellow citizens are missing? Should we be preoccupied with why there is a picture of people carrying a sofa when whole families have been wiped out by this catastrophe?
The seating arrangement of people including that of the president is such a banal distraction in the context of this grand tragedy. There are so many angles of conversation but that one is not one of them.
Mnangagwa had visited the district to assess the physical, social and economic destruction caused by the “deadliest cyclone to ever hit Africa”.
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