By Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – After failing to fulfill most of its campaign promises, Zanu PF is worried by developmental activities being done by members of the opposition in the ruling party’s strongholds.
This was revealed by the party’s National Political Commissar Munyaradzi Machacha who said the party had noted a heightened number of activities by the opposition mainly the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) warning MPs to be alert lest they will lose in 2028.
“The party relies on you so that the party’s visibility in the constituencies remain high but some of you are now absentee MPs in your constituencies. Some of you could be on genuine assignments for parliament but remember our enemy is taking advantage of your absence.
“We are seeing heightening activity of the opposition especially CCC in our strongholds. They are organizing themselves doing meetings at their households. Some are organizing sporting tournaments while others are giving out mealie meal since there is drought. After winning, our MPs went to Harare and did not come back like they have gone to South Africa,” said Machacha.
Former Zanu PF stalwart Dzikamai Mavhaire’s son Moses Mavhaire who was representing the Nelson Chamisa-led CCC in Masvingo Central is one opposition member who has been organizing sport tournaments and donating food among other aid in the community.
Machacha said MPs should be visible to the electorate even if they do not have money to give them saying they needed to show love to their electorate if they are to make it in the next election.
“So MPs, we urge you to go back to the people even if you do not have money. It’s good to just pass through communities greeting people. It doesn’t mean that you have to go there when you have something to give them. They need love and advice, they have to come to you asking for advice and you refer them to responsible authorities. That is what they want, you are facilitating development that way,” said Machacha.
He said being absent would lead to the sitting MPs losing during primaries and that would mean that the party would have new faces in parliament every election which was costly for the party and government itself.
“We are having a challenge where we have new faces every time. The new MPs are elected, by the time they learn about their responsibilities and also deliver in their constituencies, the five year term would have lapsed and a new team gets in again. How will we return the experience and institutional memory every five years? The contacts you would have made will be lost and that is a disaster for Zanu PF. You have to be loved by the electorate because we need MPs who do at least 2 terms and that strengthens the party,” said Machacha.
Machacha said Zanu PF relied on Masvingo and had potential because of numbers and also had agricultural potential that if fully utilized it could feed the whole country and the rest of the southern region.
“No one can doubt that you want your President. You were blessed with Apostolic and Zion churches that promote child bearing so you have the numbers. However, in 2023 your votes decreased from 318964 in 2018 to 307383. However, even Chamisa’s fell from 171 438 in 2018 to 167814 in 2023 which shows there was a general apathy. However, we want to agree here that this will not happen again in Masvingo,” he said.
Machacha was responding to concerns that had been raised by the Provincial Chairperson Robson Mavhenyengwa who had said MPs were not supporting the party’s restructuring exercise and that was delaying progress.
Mavhenyengwa also asked for an extension of the timeframe to finish off the restructuring exercise.
He said they were facing challenges in areas where there were independent candidates saying people did not understand that standing as independent mean automatic expulsion and that was affecting the cell registration exercise.
“We have challenges in areas where there were independent candidates, Gutu East and Mwenezi West. There are some people who are failing to understand that an independent candidate expelled self by standing as such. There are also some of us who do not want to accept those who were following an independent candidate when they want to return,” said Mavhenyengwa
Mavhenyengwa also complained that they had fuel as well as transport challenges and said some MPs were forgetting that they came from the party.
“We have some MPs who are not helping, even when cell verification is done in their constituencies, they do not go there and do not even know the number of cells in their constituencies. They forget they come from the party. I got some names of those not taking part from the DCC chairpersons and we are going to call them and remind them that the positions they have belong to the party,” said Mavhenyengwa.
