Zapu candidate for Makokoba constituency, Zenzo Masuku, believes that people in the area should simply vote for a locally-based person and not “imposed outsiders”.
Khulani Nkabinde Staff Reporter
Zapu candidate for Makokoba constituency, Zenzo Masuku, believes that people in the area should simply vote for a locally-based person and not “imposed outsiders”.
Masuku said this yesterday in an exclusive interview with the Southern Eye. “Some political parties have fielded candidates who do not even come from Makokoba.
“I was born and bred in Makokoba. I know what challenges people face here,” Masuku said.
Apparently Zapu did not even hold primary elections in Makokoba as the party’s supreme decision making body, the National People’s Council, unanimously agreed that he should stand as a candidate in the constituency.
“There was no need even for primary elections, the council felt that I was suitable enough to stand,” Masuku who has been in politics since the tender age of 15, said.
“I was born in a political family,” the candidate who has worked closely with the party’s stalwarts such as Zapu founding father Joshua Nkomo and former Member of Parliament for the area, the late Sydney Malunga declared.
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“Politics runs in the blood,” he said. Masuku was of the opinion that Zapu is actually the only party that has true revolutionary cadres.
“Other parties have candidates that are only after money, fame and fortune, but Zapu has serious people who know how much we fought to liberate this country,” he said.
Masuku also said the country’s history was not properly written as Zapu’s role has been “seriously downplayed”. “Zapu is the country’s oldest party. People need to know and respect that,” he said.
Masuku said if he wins in the constituency, he would make sure that recreational facilities in the area were revived. “There are no more recreational facilities in our area. The youth spend the whole day drinking beer and standing at street corners because they have nothing to do,” he said.
Masuku has previously initiated several community projects in Makokoba. “I have always tried to ensure that people in my area have something they can fall back on. I have looked for donations and bought machinery that people can use.”
He said young people in the constituency should be taught how to fend for themselves. “I am not like other politicians who want to perpetuate a dependency syndrome. I will give the youth a fishing rod and not the fish,” he said. Masuku is a bookkeeper by profession.
He was born at Mpilo Hospital in 1974 and went to school in Makokoba. He is married to Sithandile Sibanda and they have two daughters.
