Staff Reporter
Presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, yesterday clarified President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s drinking habits and said that the Head of State made a vow during the liberation struggle that he will only consume alcoholic beverages during the first six months of the year.
Writing on his Twitter handle,@Jamwanda2, Charamba was responding to a video that circulated this week insinuating that the President was recently drunk at a function and said that President Mnangagwa was now in his “dry season” and would not take an alcohol till the end of the year.
According to Charamba, after Cde Peter Baya succumbed to liver problem due to excessive alcohol uptake in 1978, Cde Mnangagwa made a vow not to consume alcohol during the first six months of the year and he stuck to the vow even after independence.
“Towards close of the struggle in the late 1970s, late Chief of Defence (CoD) Cde Josiah Magama Tongogara, rounded up all senior officers and commanders of then ZANLA for a serious talk that would lead to an oath. One fighter, Peter Baya, had succumbed to a liver condition which doctors had traced back to excessive drink of a strong alcoholic brand which was available in Mozambique, and which fighters often took to relieve pressure of a liberation war which had escalated. The visibly upset Tongogara reminded all present that as freedom fighters, they all had taken oath to die from enemy bullets not from alcohol as had happened to Cde Baya.
“From now onwards, bellowed the no nonsense ZANLA CoD, every senior officer had to take MHIKO (oath/vow) committing them to a restrained drink cycle. Among those senior officer from whom the ZANLA CoD extracted a MHIKO was one Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, now President of Zimbabwe,” wrote Charamba.
Charamba said that President Mnangagwa was quite austere, reflecting a man who didn’t hesitate to be severe with himself in enforcing discipline, in the way he consumes alcohol right to this day.
Charamba added that the President’s year was divided into wet season, which starts on the eve of each year and dry season, which commences on 1st June of every year.
The Presidential spokesperson concluded that malicious stories of the President being drunk at a recent function were desperate attempts to discredit him and Zimbabweans should ignore such fabrications.
