WAR veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda is well known for his straight-talk. He tells it like it is.
Hate him or love him, Sibanda is probably the only one in the present crop of Zanu PF politicians without any qualms of telling the emperor that he has no clothes or his feet smell.
Typical of JB, as he is affectionately known in the Zanu PF circles, Sibanda did not disappoint on Saturday at a lavish party thrown up to celebrate the appointment of Eunice Sandi Moyo as the new Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister.
Just like a cow-boy from the Western movies, he shot from the hip pointing an accusing finger at his boss Zanu PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo. He chided Khaya Moyo, a Senior Minister of State in President Robert Mugabe’s new administration for failing to spearhead constructive development in the Matabeleland region.
As if rubbing salt into festering wound, Sibanda charged that the region still had nothing to show for the senior officials it had in government.
“Bulawayo industries need water to be resuscitated. We need the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) to be completed. However, we continue suffering when we have a senior minister who is from the affected region. Honourable minister, please bail us out,” he thundered.
A coterie of party hackers that had come for the celebrations sheepishly exchanged glances embarrassed by Sibanda’s tirade against the Zanu PF chef. Bootlickers and other sycophants have been quick to label Sibanda disrespectful of Khaya Moyo and a spoilt brat clutching at political coat-tails of the war veterans grouping.
But Sibanda is speaking the truth to power. What development projects have Moyo and other so-called Zanu PF elders brought for the region? Mounting a statue in honour of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo has taken an incredible three years while the tarring of the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road has been abandoned yet the region prides itself of having senior ministers in the government.
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Khaya Moyo is part of the presidium by virtue of Zanu PF chairman and tipped to be the next second Vice-President.
It should not be difficult for him to persuade Mugabe and first Vice-President Joice Mujuru to prioritise some projects from the region.
Some of these senior party officials don’t lose a chance of flaunting their wealth yet roads leading to their suburban houses or rural homestead are potholed. Sibanda spoke truth to power, period.
