Harare – MDC legislators walked out on President Emmerson Mnangagwa during his state of the nation address, a move described by others as yet another incident of ‘chaotic behavior’ by the opposition party.
President Mnangagwa today delivered his first state of the nation address in parliament after being voted into power following the recent hotly disputed elections.
Following the boycott, MDC presidential spokesperson, Nkululeko Sibanda took to micro blogging site, Twitter , saying the legislators walked out because the President’s speech was uninspiring.
“MDC members of parliament have just defied the illegitimate President and @zanu_pf leader, E D Mnangagwa (@edmnangagwa)by walking out during his uninspiring reading of a speech instead of a delivery of a relevant State of the Nation speech,” read his tweet.
This move was met with mixed feeling with some calling it childish and anti development, while others hailed the defiant legislator for snubbing ‘illegitimate activities’.
“So they’ll be doing this for the next 5 years? The levels of immaturity are staggering, is this representing their constituents? It’s disgraceful to say the least. You were right @KomradeQuestion there are truly NO ADULTS in politics,” said a twitter user, Thando Khumalo.
“I support the mdc parliamentarians on this one. Ed is not a legitimate president and he shd know that. We never voted that psycho into power. Never except for a few disillusioned selfish corrupt Zanoids,” has said one twitter user only identified as Simba.
In his address today, President Mnangagwa said Government will be seized with dealing with outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid and cholera and come up with longterm solutions to the problem.
About 30 people have since lost their lives in a cholera outbreak which has been described as critical by international health organizations.
“My Government is concerned with outbreaks of water borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Going forward Government and local authorities will be ceased with this issue. Comprehensive water reticulation & waste management strategies will be implemented,” President Mnangagwa said.
On the economy, he reinforced his government’s commitment to introducing a raft of measure aimed at economic stability.
“Government will work out a plan to pay off the country’s external debt. We are committed towards stabilising the macroeconomic environment, reduce budget deficit and grow all sectors of the economy,” said President Mnangagwa.
He indicated that the multi-currency system is here to stay until economic fundamentals are in place paving way for the reintroduction of local currency.
The President also said Government has negotiated various facilities to meet forex requirements for businesses and that some of them will be disbursed starting this week.
He also reiterated the need for value adding the country’s raw materials for the country to realize more economic value from its minerals.
“There is need to scale up value addition in the manufacturing sector and Government is happy with the contribution of such minerals as gold, platinum and chrome to the economy,” said President added.
