The majority of Zimbabweans from all walks of life on Monday ignored the national day of prayer and fasting pronounced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week, saying it was a ruse to distract citizens from his economic mismanagement and rampant corruption in corridors of power.
A survey by NewsDay revealed that citizens in Harare, Mvurwi, Bulawayo, Zvishavane, Ngezi, Gweru, Kwekwe and Shurugwi, among other places, went about their business, ignoring Mnangagwa’s prayer day.
An angry Harare resident told the publication that the government is taking citizens for fools. The unnamed resident said:
What really do they take us for?
Fools? There is nothing spiritual about the problems that we are currently facing in Zimbabwe.
They are practical problems that need real solutions; they should stop playing with the name of God.
One Brix Samkange told NewsDay that the “evil” government should not hide behind demons and stop abusing God’s name. Said Samkange:
Let us stop abusing God’s name and focus on what is more important.
Our problems are man-made, there are no demons whatsoever.
God does not have the time to listen to the prayers led by an evil government that has no respect for the needs of its subjects.
Shurugwi businessman Daniel Mabonga, who owns shops at Chachacha Growth Point, said:
People in Shurugwi are suffering already.
They do not fast because they do not have the food. They have been made beggars who wait for food handouts in the form of maize which the Zanu PF government abuses.
They (people) said those who managed to pray asked God to remove the Zanu PF knee from their necks.