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Cde Phillip Chiyangwa

Chronicle Reporter
FIRST Lady Grace Mugabe’s “Meet the People” rallies in the provinces are being financed by “private money” and not tax payers, businessman Cde Phillip Chiyangwa said yesterday.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo left the door ajar for speculation yesterday after telling a newspaper that, “I really don’t know where the funding is coming from.”

This allowed the newspaper to speculate that the “mega-rallies, attended by Cabinet ministers and top civil servants, could                              be feeding from the ailing national fiscus.”

Cde Chiyangwa hit out at the claims yesterday, revealing that he was chairing a committee which was responsible for raising funds to sponsor the First Lady’s programmes ahead of her expected assumption of the post of secretary for women’s affairs at the Zanu-PF congress in December.

“I chair the committee on funding the First Lady’s programmes. We’ve sponsors. If there’s anything that has been said about money, it’s private money, it’s a fund that was brewed during the Women’s League Conference following the chaotic Youth Conference,” Cde Chiyangwa said, speaking in Gwanda, Matabeleland South, where the First Lady addressed her sixth rally.

“It became clear to us that unless we put together a more formidable position regarding funding the whole programme related to the secretary for women’s affairs designate, we’ll have problems,”

Cde Chiyangwa, who made his fortune in real estate, added: “There’s no question of how much we’ve spent. People who’re spending this money are willing to spend it to support her. This is money nobody should even talk to me about, or ask me. It’s funds that will continue to flow until her programme gets to December.”

He declined to provide names of other members of the committee.
“I’ve identified myself as the chairman,” he said curtly.

President Robert Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba added: “Comrade Gumbo’s ignorance of the funding does not mean that the rallies are funded by the State.”

He also pointed out that the First Lady was a “woman of means” with an impressive business portfolio, adding that her security — which has meant she uses an Air Force helicopter to reach certain venues — was rightly being handled by State agencies.

“As the First Lady, we look at issues of security, convenience and availability of the plane and these are benefits that ordinarily the First Family would receive. Wherever she goes, private or public, she should have security and her staff,” Charamba explained.