Traditional healer leaves Mugabe’s ministers with egg on their faces

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has revealed that senior government officials were embarrassed and left with egg on their face by a shrewd and self-styled traditional spirit medium, who claimed to have discovered non-existent diesel in Chinhoyi.

In the middle of this year, President Robert Mugabe appointed a high-powered taskforce comprising Mutasa, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, amid state media hype, to work with the spirit medium on the so-called oil find at Chinhoyi caves and surrounding areas. In the government’s first official public comments on the issue, Mutasa left parliamentarians in stitches when he said the senior government ministers were forced to walk in caves without shoes as part of the fuel-discovering rituals.”There was diesel, it was coming from a mountain, but it had been put there by somebody,” Mutasa said to bursts of laughter from legislators.”When we made further investigations, we realised that it was a hoax and that there was no diesel in the mountains or other areas where there was said to be diesel,” Mutasa said, suppressing a smile.Zimbabwe is experiencing severe fuel shortages, part of a larger crisis that has seen the country experience shortages of food and foreign currency, rising unemployment and the world’s highest inflation rate of nearly 7 000 per cent.Fuel shortages have continued to worsen with some public transporters pulling their vehicles from the road leaving commuters stranded and walking to and from work.But the fruitless search for fuel took a comic twist this year and had exposed government’s desperation but left Zimbabweans wondering whether their rulers were serious.The government is now hunting the spirit medium who gave her name as Rotina Mavhunga but who reportedly uses different names.Mavhunga had said the fuel was a gift from ancestral spirits “who saw that their children were suffering because of the fuel shortages” and at one time was pictured in the state-run Sunday Mail holding a hosepipe stuck into a rock and purportedly oozing the oil.”We spent a lot of time going into caves…without shoes yes,” Mutasa said, drawing more howls from Parliament, dominated by Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party.”We did that to be satisfied that there was no diesel and now the n’anga (traditional healer) has disappeared.We are looking for the n’anga,” he said.Police have arrested nearly 50 of Mavhunga’s followers but it was not clear whether they had been charged or released while Mavhunga is said to have skipped the country after being paid money by the government.ZimOnlineIn the government’s first official public comments on the issue, Mutasa left parliamentarians in stitches when he said the senior government ministers were forced to walk in caves without shoes as part of the fuel-discovering rituals.”There was diesel, it was coming from a mountain, but it had been put there by somebody,” Mutasa said to bursts of laughter from legislators.”When we made further investigations, we realised that it was a hoax and that there was no diesel in the mountains or other areas where there was said to be diesel,” Mutasa said, suppressing a smile.Zimbabwe is experiencing severe fuel shortages, part of a larger crisis that has seen the country experience shortages of food and foreign currency, rising unemployment and the world’s highest inflation rate of nearly 7 000 per cent.Fuel shortages have continued to worsen with some public transporters pulling their vehicles from the road leaving commuters stranded and walking to and from work.But the fruitless search for fuel took a comic twist this year and had exposed government’s desperation but left Zimbabweans wondering whether their rulers were serious.The government is now hunting the spirit medium who gave her name as Rotina Mavhunga but who reportedly uses different names.Mavhunga had said the fuel was a gift from ancestral spirits “who saw that their children were suffering because of the fuel shortages” and at one time was pictured in the state-run Sunday Mail holding a hosepipe stuck into a rock and purportedly oozing the oil.”We spent a lot of time going into caves…without shoes yes,” Mutasa said, drawing more howls from Parliament, dominated by Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party.”We did that to be satisfied that there was no diesel and now the n’anga (traditional healer) has disappeared.We are looking for the n’anga,” he said.Police have arrested nearly 50 of Mavhunga’s followers but it was not clear whether they had been charged or released while Mavhunga is said to have skipped the country after being paid money by the government.ZimOnline

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