Joosbi Omar
Cephas Shava in Mwenezi
16 Feb 2017 – MWENEZI – G40 has yet again won a decisive factional battle against Team Lacoste after the group successfully hoodwinked its rivals into endorsing Joosbi Omar who then went ahead and won the Zanu PF primaries held on Tuesday to select a candidate to represent the party in the upcoming Mwenezi East by-election.
It is suspected that Omar has all along been fighting from the G40 trenches but the faction’s functionaries are said to have cunningly duped Team Lacoste by allowing Omar to adopt a false Lacoste identity merely for the purpose of getting him endorsed by the rival faction.
“Team Lacoste was sold a dummy; they were made to rally behind a wolf who is smartly dressed in a sheep skin. Mark my words, as soon as he becomes MP, Omar will rip off the veil and show his true identity,” said a source who said he was privy to the developments.
A suspicious provincial affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa, who is said to be fronting Team Lacoste herself, was the first to raise the red flag over Omar when she recently told a gathering at an inter-district meting held in Nemamwa that if one wanted to snoop over G40, they should just engage Omar whom she said was vacillating between the factions.
If these claims are anything to go by, this becomes G40’s second victory in a row after the faction successfully pushed forward a suspected sympathiser, Beauty Chabaya, in last month’s Bikita West by-election.
Omar won the primaries by a total of 5 901 out of a total of 11 986 votes cast, over 4 500 votes ahead of his nearest rival, Marvellous Chifumuro, who scored 1 434 in a crowded field with a total of 13 contestants.
On the third place was Patrick Mandebvu with 1 338 while Jabulani Mberesi came fourth with 1 222. Cuthbert Webster Muzara came a distant fifth with a paltry 543 votes.
Omar suffered a heavy setback only in Chifumuro’s home area of Sagwari where he scored a measly 72 against Chifumuro’s 878 votes.
This was, however, not enough to derail Omar’s ambitions to ultimately clinch the nomination after many years of trying and failing.
In 2008, Omar lost to Tongai Matutu of the MDC in the his bid to become Masvingo Urban legislator and lost to Daniel Shumba in the primaries ahead of the 2013 national elections.
In 2015, his CV to contest in the primaries after then Zanu PF Mwenezi East legislator Kudakwashe Bhasikiti had been fired was rejected and the seat went to Joshua ‘Mazebra’ Moyo who however died in December last year.
Omar’s win was greeted with wild celebrations by his supporters in such places as Rutenga and Neshuro with some of them saying his victory was inevitable.
Omar’s campaign manager, Knocks Mutsambwa thanked supporters for showing their faith in Zanu PF and in Omar.
After the nomination court, which sits at Masvingo Magistrates Court on Friday, Omar will officially square it off against Bhasikiti – who is claiming to be representing the opposition ZimPF – in the by-election scheduled for April 8.
Other candidates who took place in the primary elections are Elvanos Dube 351, Timittah Henning Chishamba 251, Francis Mapisa 244, Elliam Moyo 152, Sifana Ngavaite 90, Takura Mudavose 77, Dickson Mazivire 55 and Sikhulekile Moyo 44.politics
