By Arts Correspondent
HARARE — Firebrand Zanu PF activist and businessman Acie Lumumba has detonated a political grenade, accusing socialite Pokello Nare of contributing “absolutely nothing” to the ruling party while alleging that controversial gold dealer Scott Sakupwanya is linked to drug inflows into the country.
Speaking in a video now circulating widely online, Lumumba tore into what he described as a growing class of Zanu PF insiders who extract privilege without giving anything back to the party or the country.
His sharpest attack was reserved for Pokello, who is married to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son, Emmerson Junior. Lumumba argued that despite her proximity to power and conspicuous lifestyle, she offers no political, organisational or mobilising value to Zanu PF.
He likened her public image to the excesses once associated with former First Lady Grace Mugabe, branding her a symbol of what he called an “extraction economy” thriving inside the ruling party.
“I do have a problem with another brand, for example, Pokello Nare, the most demonic phenomenon in Zanu PF, by certain societal standards, Pokello was used by everything that can use a woman, all her relationships collapsed,” he said.
“Her celebrity was dimmed, her transactional value had declined, but she repositioned herself and perhaps perfectly, she married the president’s son as a second wife, now she leads a very luxurious life, designer bags, European trips with her friends, curated Instagram, but she contributes absolutely nothing to the party’s survival.
“She doesn’t mobilise, she organises nothing, she brings no children to the party who may become future voters, she’s not even a registered voter, she simply extracts and then displays the world, exactly like Gucci Grace,” said Lumumba.
Lumumba argued that while the Mugabe family has since retreated into discretion, Pokello has become the new public face of elite excess.
“The Mugabe children fronted wealth in opulence, the Mugabe sons particularly were not discreet, now Mugabe’s kids are very discreet, they don’t flaunt, they don’t post, so the new face of the old Mugabe’s child excess is Pokello.
“She is the second wife who arrived when all the work was done, smiled for the pictures and drove off with the luxury car, she is the symbol of the new Zanu-PF, a pure beneficiary who extracts without contributing.
“She rose by replacing a woman who had done all the work and loved the man when it was not fashionable to love the man, Pokello performs the extravagance that we no longer see from the Mugabe kids, she is doing nothing wrong legally but symbolically, she represents the extraction economy that fuels Zimbabwean anger.”
Lumumba said his remarks were meant to draw a line between party members who take and give back, and those who only take.
“I’m using this as an example because I want to illustrate the difference between people who take from Zanu-PF and then give back to Zanu-PF versus people who only take from Zanu-PF and we have nothing to collateralise in return.”
He then turned his attention to Sakupwanya, making explosive allegations without providing evidence, claiming the businessman is responsible for “a lot of the drugs coming into the country”.
Despite this, Lumumba insisted Sakupwanya still balances the scales within Zanu-PF.
“I do not have a problem with, say, Scott Sakupwanya,” Lumumba stated.
“I saw a recent picture of him, his nose is so big now that it looks like he snorted half of Kariba Dam, but politics has room for drug users too, in fact he is responsible for a lot of the drugs that are coming into the country, but that’s another episode.
“But I don’t even have a problem with him because he gives to the party as much as he takes to the party, from the party, so he is contributing.”
Sakupwanya has not publicly responded to the allegations.
The video has reignited debate over entitlement, excess and accountability within Zanu-PF, exposing uncomfortable fault lines between loyalty, contribution and privilege at the heart of the ruling party.
