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The Citizens Coalition for Change deputy spokesperson Ostalos Gift Siziba has Castigated Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana, for justifying government’s purchase of firearms in Indonesia.This comes after Mangwana cited that the country needs more heavy weapons to capacitate the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF).
Posting on his twitter page Mangwana said “So why do we have a Ministry of Defence if we can’t equip the soldiers? Hanti (Definitely) we need to be able to defend ourselves? #MoreZvombo (#MoreWeapons)”
The CCC deputy spokesperson Siziba called on the government to prioritise addressing current economic challenges rather than buying weapons.
“It is worrying that the regime in Harare would want to buy arms as a priority for a country with so many urgent problems when it is not at war,”
“We are not Somalia. We have relative stability, so the country doesn’t need arms as a top priority,”
“The real challenge is the economic crisis due to a political situation flowing from a lack of legitimacy for Mnangagwa’s leadership.”
Mangwana’s remarks come after reports by Indonesia’s state media news agency Antara indicated that Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who was in the Asian country recently, visited the state-owned weaponry industry PT Pindad in Bandung to explore the possibility of arms purchase.
The Antara news agency later repeated the report that Chiwenga was set to visit PT Pindad in Bandung, the Indonesian state-owned arms manufacturing company specialising in military hardware. The news agency said:
“Chiwenga will be offered weapons and arms to modernise the Zimbabwean military, as well as other heavy equipment to improve the Zimbabwean mining industry.”
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