Nkayi MP under fire for bootlicking ED

NKAYI South MP Stars Mathe (Zanu PF) is under fire from Matabeleland activists for bootlicking President Emmerson Mnangagwa, notwithstanding that the Zanu PF leader was allegedly involved in the execution of Gukurahundi massacres in the early 1980s.

Mnangagwa is said to be one of the brains behind the Gukurahundi genocide in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions, which resulted in an estimated 20 000 civilians being killed and tens of thousands displaced. Mathe got herself in trouble after she praised Mnangagwa for ensuring political stability in the country.

“I am happy that this country is still run by blacks and has attained 41 years of independence. Some countries are still fighting for their independence and others have attained it, but they still have problems," she said.

“We got our independence long back but we still live in unity, peace and harmony and we have not experienced any spilling of blood,” Mathe said in the National Assembly.

Her remarks sparked outrage from the secessionist Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) which described her as someone who does not deserve a position in Parliament.

“Honestly, there is nothing honourable in Mathe. The title honourable is too smart for her. Let her say and do honourable things and we will address her by that title.

“The people here are disgusted by parliamentary debates and the contributions attributed to the Nkayi South MP Mathe,” said the MRP in a statement.

“The controversial Mathe shamelessly exonerated her party Zanu PF from the genocide which took place in Matabeleland.

“Mathe, who is also from Matabeleland, has guts to speak glowingly of Mnangagwa forgetting his involvement in the killing of thousands of people in the region.

“This kind of bootlicking should be criminalised. How on earth would Mathe hail Mnangagwa for things that do not exist in this country? How can she try to sweep under the carpet crimes involving bloodshed in which the very people she is praising are implicated?”

The MRP claimed that Mathe was a witness to the genocide, which the late former President Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the Zanu PF government masterminded soon after independence in 1980.

“She is a witness to the more than 20 000 innocent civilians who fell to the unjustified sword of the same people and party to which she is expressing her blind loyalty.

“Her own relatives and villagers in Nkayi were equally affected. They are in emotional pain to this day. Some still suffer physical agony to this day, but here Mathe is pretending that nothing of the sort ever happened.”