Zimbabwe Vice President: Govt Economic Blueprint Flawed
Mujuru said the nation's five-year strategic document doesn't incorporate several key issues that affect the lives of some Zimbabweans
HARARE — Acting President Joice Mujuru says the country's new economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET), is flawed. Officiating at the burial of national hero Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Chirenda at the national shrine on Thursday, Vice President Mujuru became the first senior government official to admit that the country's new economic blueprint is not up to standard. Mujuru said the nation's five-year strategic document doesn't incorporate several key issues that affect the lives of some Zimbabweans, especially the youth. The Zanu PF administration launched ZIMASSET late last year saying it was in line with its 2013 election manifesto. The party went on to win the July 31 national elections despite allegations of massive vote-rigging by the Movement for Democratic Change led by former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Despite her criticism of the economic blueprint, Vice President Mujuru said the new administration will work flat out to ensure that Zanu PF's election promises are fulfilled within the next five years. Turning to the deceased, she said Retired Lieutenant Chirenda, who died on the first of January in Bulawayo, was a committed cadre who worked tirelessly for the liberation of Zimbabwe and ensured majority Zimbabweans received pieces of land under the country's fast track agrarian reforms. Chirinda died after an undisclosed long illness. Family representative Jokoniah Chirenda told mourners that his brother was a family unifier, adding the void he has left would be difficult to fill. Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Chirenda was born on August 1, 1944, and became politically active in 1964 when he crossed the border to Zambia where he joined ZAPU and was recruited into the special affairs section of the party's military wing. In his pre-independence life, he was involved in several military operations and survived a landline blast that took the life of veteran nationalist and military commander Nikita Mangena in 1978. After independence in 1980, Chirenda held several military portfolios before he was posted to the Zimbabwe High Commission in Botswana as a military attaché between 1990 and 1994. He then resigned from the army in 1995. Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Chirenda is survived by his wife Florence, nine children and 18 grandchildren.