…mammoth task ahead in Zanu PF strongholds
TellZim Reporter
CHIREDZI-The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has broken record in Chiredzi District having managed to field candidates in all 40 local authority seats and Five parliamentary seats.
Chiredzi district, which was trending on social media in 2018 after a record win in one of its constituencies, Chiredzi North, after surpassing Zanu PF’s long time stronghold, Uzumba Marambapfungwe, has been one of Zanu PFs cake due to its location in resettlement areas.
This makes it difficult for opposition parties to penetrate, even under worse economic situations, but this time around CCC has however managed to field candidates in every ward and in all constituencies
For the newly created Chiredzi Central Constituency, Zanu PFs candidate, Francis Moyo will be facing CCC’s youthful candidate, Ropafadzo Makumire, who is ward 3 sitting councilor and Chiredzi Town Council Vice Chairperson.
Makumire will be fishing from the same pond with his current boss, Alderman Gibson Hwende who is contesting as independent after was disqualified by the CCC’s election directorate to represent the party.
Makumire and Moyo are currently clashing over the development of the 750ha meant for urban expansion, with the latter is being alleged to be working is close ties with Full Life Open Arms Africa Investments (FLOAAI) which is currently at loggerheads with the two local authorities for selling undeveloped land without their knowledge.
Moyo faces a stiffer challenge in his own camp, Zanu PF, where he is being accused of nepotism and corruption which is going to lower his chances of succeeding in the forthcoming elections.
Gibson Hwende, who is the Chairman of Chiredzi Town Council also need to work extra hard towards cleansing his name from the 750 ha scandal as well as being named a Zanu PF proxy, which makes his chances of going to Mt Hampden slimmer.
Makumire commandeers a large youth base from his Church, Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe and has been actively involved in anti-drug abuse campaigns targeting youths in the constituency.
In Chiredzi north, where Roy Bhila returned as Zanu PF representative, a development that has never happened in the history of the constituency, has high chances of whitewashing CCC’s Fungai Chamisa.
In 2018 harmonized elections, the opposition did not field any candidate in Chiredzi North with little-known Joseph Chiturumani who represented NFP getting a paltry of 1 291 votes against Bhila’s 35 839 and Faith Machira of ZIPP getting only 635 votes.
With the constituency having been stripped of its major voting wards during the delimitation exercise, Fungai Chamisa is likely to score a sizeable number of votes than any opposition candidate before.
Darlington Chiwa who once stood as an Independent candidate in Chiredzi West before the delimitation exercise and scored 2 361 votes in a race with 8 other candidates, mostly independent, will also represent Zanu PF in the delimited Chiredzi West constituency, which comprise part of old Chiredzi North and West.
Chiwa needs disgruntled Shingirayi Mubhoyi, his primary election contender’s, camps on his side to beat CCC’ young turk Nhamoinesu Machigiri. The candidates have equal opportunities of winning the seat depending on the strategies they are going to use to lure their electorate, with Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe employees being the major decisive group in their battle.
In Chiredzi South, Zanu PF is the most dominant party, whose candidate and businessman Joey Sithole is set to clash with CCCs Douglas Gumbo in a more disgruntled constituency which is blaming the government for imposing Dendairy, a Kwekwe based company linked with the President Emerson Mnangagwa to displace more than 3000 families to grow lucerne grass on a 12000-hectare piece of land owned by the indigenes.
Also the renaming of Chambuta Children’s home to Auxilia Mnangagwa Children’s Home is another worrisome element which might play against Sithole though they seem to be also having a balanced opportunities to score better than each other.
Chiredzi East will be a more interesting battleground for Zanu PFs candidate Siyaki Mundungehama who is from the other end of the constituency representing the Ndau people against CCCs Godfrey Maluleke, a descendant of the Former Governor’s Titus Maluleke’s clan who will be standing in for the Xhangni tribe on the other end of the constituency.
With the former Member of Parliament for the old constituency, Denford Masiya off the book, the Xhangani end will be left without an option than electing one of their own, Godfrey Maluleke while the other side is hoping to get a Ministerial post for their candidate, Mundungehama who is also the Chairperson of the District Coordinating Committee (DCC)
Mundungehama has better odds than Maluleke and is likely to drop from being a civil servant as he joined other successful candidates in Mt Hampden.
In Chiredzi urban local authority elections, Zanu PF needs to be geared in order to win the majority seats, with some of its councilors being labelled corrupt on their alleged involvement in the 750 ha scandal will be very much difficult for them.
Interestingly, all the 7 councilors, excluding Makumire from both Zanu PF and CCC are the current seating councilors which makes it difficult for the contestants to unseat them, except for ward 2, which was merged by former ward 1 where Zanu PF had no chances of winning that seat.
