…rip each other posters off poles
Rutendo Chirume
Instead of uniting for the sole purpose of securing victory for Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in the March 26 by-elections, Masvingo Urban ward 4 candidates Thokozile Muchuchuti and Aleck Tabe are on each other’s throat, taking each other to court over removal of campaign posters.
It is known that opponents are the ones often accused of removing posters of other contenders but in this case CCC candidates are reportedly sabotaging each other within their party.
Muchuchuti claims to be certain that Tabe’s people are the ones removing her posters since they at one point caught them in the act and reported the case to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and police.
“We reported the issue to police when we saw Tabe’s people removing my posters one night because we did not want to place the law into our hands. We are law abiding citizens who respect the law even though there have been no progress of arrests since I filed the report. At ZEC, we were called together with Tabe for disciplinary hearing where they opened a code of conduct for both of us and warned against violating campaign strategies for each other,” said Muchuchuti.
Muchuchuti who claims to have been stripped off party privileges like monetary funds to carry out campaigns and has been getting help from the community as well as well-wishers, said she is now more defiant than ever despite victimization she is enduring because of the support of the community.
“After we were called by ZEC, the situation got even worse, it is like they took an oath just to sabotage the campaign for me but I will not bow down, especially now because of the support which I am receiving from the community. They are my driving force because they are motivating me building my victory,” said Muchuchuti.
Prior to that Muchuchuti dragged Tabe to court over the allegations of physically assaulting her, confiscating her documents and other particulars during the time when they were submitting their names at the nomination court.
Efforts to get comment from Tabe were fruitless as his cellphone went unanswered until the time of publication.
