This happened in the presence of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Thokhozani Khupe, in addition to top foreign diplomats.
Secretary for Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Desire Sibanda, who was officiating, asked the police band to play the national anthem to officially open the launch of the 2011-2015 implementation progress report, but it disobeyed the order.
Even the intervention of Sylvester Nguni, the Minister of State in the Office of Vice-President Joyce Mujuru yielded nothing, when he explained that he was representing his boss.
Local and international delegates had to stand for more than five minutes while the police band members whispered among themselves and fidgeted.
Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Tapiwa Mashakada, who addressed delegates, castigated the behavior, describing it as “treasonous”.
“I must say that it’s really embarrassing to the country for us to privatise the national anthem. The national anthem is a national anthem. The national flag is a national flag and it doesn’t belong to one political party,” Mashakada said.
After the event, Mashakada addressed a press conference and told journalists that the “refusal by the police band to sing the national anthem was ill-advised and misinformed action by one of the security arms.”
Mashakada added: “Why they refused to play the national anthem is best known to themselves.”
But police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, in an email, said there was a misunderstanding.
“What transpired at the Harare International Conference Centre this afternoon arose from a misunderstanding on where the national anthem or Presidential salute should be slotted. Protocol dictates that the national anthem is played at occasions which are presided over by the Presidium and in this case, Vice President Mujuru was supposed to officiate.
“She later did not turn up at the function but the police band was already at the function. No official communication was given to the police band by the organizers on who was going to stand on behalf of the Vice President.
“According to government functions protocol, the national anthem is played at the beginning and end of a program and in this case proceedings had already commenced and the police band could not play the national anthem outside protocol,” she said.
She added: “However after some consultations, the ZRP band was ready to play the national anthem but Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Mashakada, announced that he was no longer interested in having it played.”
However, national anthems are commonly played even when no member of the presidium is present.
Post published in: News
Obviously they had gone there for food and nothing else. I am sure every one of them knew why they had gone to that venue ….. playing the National Anthem. Refusing to do what you are invited for, is pure insurbodination.