Mutasa threatens to act on vehicle defiance

Politics
Didymus Mutasa said the party would soon be moving in to recover vehicles that were used during the election campaign period by National Assembly candidates

ZANU PF secretary for administration and Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa yesterday said the party would soon be moving in to recover vehicles that were used during the election campaign period by National Assembly candidates in the run-up to the July 31 polls.

NDUDUZO TSHUMA STAFF REPORTER

Zanu PF gave all its National Assembly candidates Ford Everest vehicles a few days before the general elections for ease of travel, but Mutasa wrote to all party provincial chairpersons on October 20 directing that all candidates surrender the cars with immediate effect.

However, Mutasa’s directives seem to have fallen on deaf ears as there is an unwillingness to return the vehicles in all provinces.

“I will not tell you what we are going to do, but we will do something,” Mutasa told Southern Eye yesterday.

“We want the vehicles back to be used for a number of party activities that are going on. It is not fair to use private vehicles on party programmes when the Zanu PF vehicles are kept by some individuals who use them for things that are not related to the organisation.

“We are taking back all those vehicles. How, I will not tell you, but you will see us taking them,” he said.

A survey by Southern Eye yesterday revealed that only a few candidates had responded to Mutasa’s call to surrender the vehicles while some were seen parked outside a local hotel in Bulawayo where legislators were attending a workshop last Friday.

Some party insiders attributed the defiance of Mutasa’s directive to the provincial elections initially set for this weekend, but postponed to an unannounced date.