RENOWNED businessman and Special Presidential Investment Advisor to the United Arab Emirates, Paul Tungwarara, has condemned the recent attacks on President Emmerson Mnangagwa by a group of war veterans led by one Cde Blessed Geza.
Tungwarara described the attacks as "retrogressive" and a hindrance to the country's development agenda.
The war veterans' verbal onslaught against Mnangagwa has created confusion among investors, Tungwarara said, warning that this could have far-reaching consequences for the country's economic growth.
"The attacks are not only unwarranted, but they also create uncertainty and undermine the country's efforts to attract investment," Tungwarara said.
He also described the latest attacks as a mere smear campaign meant to manipulate public opinion and deter potential investors.
"The country was now moving in a good development trajectory and we were gradually gaining a positive image on the global stage, then all of a sudden someone just wakes up and unleashes a smear campaign.
"It actually causes confusion among investors, and such words should be avoided at all costs because any smear campaign will end up causing the ordinary citizens, who are already reeling from the effects of sanctions, to suffer more."
Any progressive Zimbabwean, Tungwarara said, should focus on supporting President Mnangagwa's vision of achieving an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.
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This, he said, can only be achieved when everyone moves in tandem with the Second Republic's mantra of leaving no one behind and no place behind, guided by the "nyika inovakwa nevene vayo" mantra.
"It's very sad that everyone is now being indirectly affected just because one person has issued a statement denigrating their own country.
"I think there should be a law to deal with such individuals. For example, in Dubai, if anyone embarks on a smear campaign targeting the President or says anything bad about the President on social media, that person will be arrested. I think this explains why the UAE is as developed as it is."
