First Lady leads from the front
FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa led from the front during yesterday’s march to mark the Sadc-initiated anti-sanctions day, walking from the Robert Mugabe Square — the open space behind the Harare International Conference Centre — to the National Sports Stadium.
This was the first time Zimbabwe observed the day, which was declared a public holiday.
The First Lady’s passion for the country’s economic emancipation through the lifting of sanctions left people, including Government ministers and members of the diplomatic corps awestruck.
Amai Mnangagwa’s participation in the march dovetailed with her speech on Thursday in which she urged women to make a stand against sanctions.
She said the illegal economic embargo was hitting hard, women and children, both living and unborn.
In an interview after the march, the First Lady shed tears while narrating how some rural girls are making do with cow dung as a substitute for sanitary pads owing to sanctions which have pushed prices beyond their reach.
“No one knows the diseases that girls could contract because of their use of cow dung as sanitary pads. The girl child is suffering. I have been to various communities around the country, the challenges these communities are experiencing makes my heart bleed. What kind of life is this, where are we heading to as a country with this kind of life? We have suffered enough, sanctions must go now,” she said, while holding back her tears. “The people of Zimbabwe have suffered, what wrong did we do to deserve this, if we committed a crime, then they should say it out. Pachivanhu chedu inga tinoti ngozi inopera nekuripwa. We are not fighting with America but we are saying enough is enough, remove these illegal sanctions.”
In a statement on Thursday, the First Lady said: “As women, we are not engaged in any meaningful activities because of poor wages or complete absence thereof. This has affected our working experiences, making the majority of us full-time housewives, performing mostly household chores.
“Our children have nothing to do, putting to waste our investment in their education and literally killing their potential contribution to economic development.”
She described sanctions as a direct assault on the country, saying those who put the embargo wanted to invade the country and take away its resources to enrich themselves.
Amai Mnangagwa decried that as a result of sanctions, women were now giving birth in shacks, with untrained midwives, no equipment in hospitals and no medicines.
The wife to Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Guo Shaochun, Madam Wang Wei congratulated Zimbabweans for standing against sanctions.