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Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Nduduzo Tshuma Political Editor
THE budget for First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe cannot be separated from that of President Robert Mugabe as they travel together and at times he delegates her to conduct some assignments, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said. Chinamasa was responding to the MDC-T Bulawayo South legislator Eddie Cross, who had inquired whether the First Lady’s recent tours of provinces were covered by the State.

“The short answer to the HonMember’s question is that the cost of the logistics or movements of the First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe to meetings, falls within the budget of the office of the President,” Chinamasa said during a question and answer session in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

“It’s not feasible to isolate such costs from the overall costs or budget of the Office of the President.” In a follow up question, MDC-T Binga North legislator Prince Dubeko Sibanda asked if it was the government’s policy to fund political activities to which Chinamasa accused the MP of focusing on trivialities.

“The Hon Member is just trying to split hairs. When the First Lady travels, sometimes they travel together with the President and I don’t know whether for that event he would want me to separate the cost for the First Lady flying in the helicopter with the President,” Chinamasa said.

“Sometimes the President will delegate her to do his work and at times charity work and so on. Clearly, I do not see any rationale for trying to split hairs. “The point is that the First Lady sometimes helps the President in discharging his government duties. You can’t separate the political from the official.

“In the same way that the President, when he travels, he is travelling as the President of the country but also as leader of Zanu-PF. I’ve never been asked at any time why he has travelled in a helicopter as leader of Zanu-PF because he cannot separate his leadership of Zanu-PF from his leadership of the country.”

In March this year, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa defended the distribution of agricultural equipment by the First Lady, insisting there was nothing amiss in what she was doing.

He told MPs: “The First Lady has a right to deliver the equipment. She is a First Lady of those from this side (MDC-T) as well as from that side (Zanu-PF). It’s not the rally that gets the equipment but it’s the people. I’m sure this response will pacify most of you.”