Weapons, wet Pants and war vets

• The last couple of days have really been news packed.

Vice President, Constatino Chiwenga just returned from Indonesia where he had gone for business, including shopping for guns.

I am sure the former army general knows something that we the povo know nothing about, because why else would he be shopping around for weapons?

While we were still digesting the story of guys buying, on Friday government announced it would compensate more than 150, 000 war veterans, war collaborators and ex-political prisoners who missed out during the initial compensation in 1997.

The big question is; why now and are there any people who really missed out?

I will come back to this issue, for now let me talk about a picture that kept social media abuzz on Monday, a picture of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wet pants as he landed in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

Though government spokesperson, Nick Mangwana tried to downplay the ‘wetness’ of the President’s pair of trousers by saying it was the effect of camera light, it was clear for all to see that something had surely gone wrong: he had wet his pants; perhaps he’s a nervous flyer!

Maybe instead of coming up with that explanation, Mangwana could have said the President accidentally spilled water on himself, he is human after all and these things happen.

Some even suggested that maybe he uses a catheter and that it got full and spilled. This image also took people back to another picture of Mnangagwa, showing a bulge on his pants to suggest that he could be indeed using a catheter.

Being the president, it obviously means his health is a big story hence people will always be on the lookout for such things.

And still on the president, he and his crew once again blew millions of dollars as they hired a US$30, 000 (P360, 000) per hour private jet to fly to Davos. The said jet was in the past reportedly used by the royal family of oil rich Saudi Arabia. Anyway, as they would say, it’s their time to eat, and boy are they feasting!

Back to the story of paying out war veterans, it remains to be seen how much they would be paid as the government has repeatedly said it has no capacity to increase salaries for civil servants.

The timing of this payout also raises eyebrows as it comes a few months before general elections. Could this be another tactic by the ruling party to buy support, seems so as this group of people has influence in our local politics.

In 1997, the government paid out ZWL$50, 000 (more than US$4, 000) each to almost 50, 000 war veterans. The move resulted in the collapse of the Zim Dollar and it has never recovered since then.