Media reported that Buka together with former Indigenisation minister Francis Nhema were on Friday blocked from greeting Mnangagwa at a state function in Chirumanzu in Midlands province.
However in an interview on Monday, Buka said the media reports are wrong because Mnangagwa did not snub anyone.
“I do not know where the media got such reports. That is all wrong because we attended the meeting and everyone was welcomed,” Buka said.
“We were all greeted and we also attended the briefing before the acting president addressed the people,” she said.
“No one was barred from the meeting and we are all shocked because everyone was sitting in the tents and not in the sun,” she said.
The Standard Newspaper reported that, “Reliable sources told The Standard that Nhema who is the Shurugwi North MP and Buka had joined others who had lined up to greet the VP on rival.
“But, said a source who is a government official, Mnangagwa loyalists kicked the two from the queue of officials lining up to greet Mnangagwa and told them to take seats among the ordinary people gathered for the function. The official said the two were accused of sympathising with ousted VP Joice Mujuru ahead of Zanu PF 6th National People’s Congress held in Harare early this month. They were also not permitted to sit in the VIP tent.”
The Standard Newspaper went on to report that the two former ministers “quickly retreated and had to sit in the hot sun throughout the programme together with ordinary villagers.”
“Another source said the Mnangagwa loyalists who humiliated the former ministers comprised locals from Chirumanzu and other Zanu PF officials who had come from elsewhere. The source said it was clear these people ejected Nhema and Buka under instruction from someone else.”
former Zvishavane-Runde MP Larry Mavima, a Mnangagwa ally, said all these reports are meant to tarnish the acting president’s image.
“All these reports are a systematic approach meant to tarnish the country’s new vice president,” Mavima said.
“Journalists should be factual and report only the truth,” he said.
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