The popular fall of a businessman
From a businessman falling from a prison truck to an army commander declaring ZanuPF will rule till donkeys grow horns, these are the stories trending this week, but the former’s fall seems to be topping the news.
Social media users, especially on X, had a field day on Tuesday following the fall (both literally and symbolically) of controversial businessman, Mike Chimombe while disembarking from a prison truck.
‘Fallen from grace’, ‘how the mighty have fallen’, ‘fallen and never to rise’, ‘the millions could not save him from falling’ were some of the captions accompanying the pictures of Chimombe lying face down on the ground.
He was arrested last Friday together with his co -accused Moses Mpofu over fraud charges involving US$7.7 million which was part of the US$88 million meant for the presidential goat scheme.
The pair were allegedly paid the money to supply the goats but never delivered, instead they reportedly financed their lavish lifestyle.
As of Tuesday, they were still behind bars awaiting the ruling of their bail application.
After his fall, Chimombe put on a brave face, stood up and walked to the courtroom.
But I can guarantee you that his pictures will be memes for days to come as many enjoyed seeing the ‘millionaire’ on the ground. In a case of kicking a man while he’s down, to add to Chimombe’s woes, his company, Millytake Enterprises was evicted from its offices in Harare this week, according to local media reports.
And by the way, many are celebrating their imprisonment because, as mentioned in last week’s column, there were widespread fears they might not even be charged owing to their close links with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
While some are saying the two are just sacrificial lambs, seeing as the other wanted person, Wicknell Chivayo, is still a free man, at least there was some action against these individuals who have for a long time been reportedly siphoning money from government coffers for personal use.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe National Army Commander, Nhamo Senyatwe is also trending for declaring that ZanuPF will rule ‘till donkeys grow horns’.
Addressing a ruling party gathering in the Manicaland Province over the weekend, the army boss said ZanuPF will never be removed from power through the ballot.
Constitutionally, it is wrong for a serving soldier to take political sides but I guess that does not apply in this case as he is pro the ruling party.
This is not the first time an army boss has uttered such words.
During the late Robert Mugabe’s era, the then army commander also declared that the gun will always dominate over the ballot and true to their word, Zimbabwe’s elections have always been marred by voter intimidation including from soldiers.
Basically, what this implies is that holding general elections is just a formality in Zimbabwe as the army will never accept any results that don’t favour Zanu PF.
In football news, the man’s national team lost 2-0 to Kenya on Tuesday to narrowly miss out on a place in the Cosafa Cup semi-finals. Although the Brave Warriors won their first two matches, defeat to the Kenyans meant Comoros topped our group to progress to the next round.
