Zanu PF officials in stampede for seats

Politics
ZANU PF’s Bulawayo provincial executive has been flooded with CVs from senior and junior officials scrambling for five vacant parliamentary seats, after the MDCs said they will boycott upcoming by-elections.

ZANU PF’s Bulawayo provincial executive has been flooded with CVs from senior and junior officials scrambling for five vacant parliamentary seats, after the MDCs said they will boycott upcoming by-elections.

NQOBANI NDLOVU STAFF REPORTER

Zanu PF has not won a single seat in Bulawayo since 2000 and sources said the MDCs by-election boycott had been gleefully received by party members, who were now scrambling to become parliamentarians.

Acting Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial chairperson Christopher Dube confirmed the executive was receiving countless CVs from members eyeing the vacant Luveve, Mpopoma-Pelandaba, Makokoba, Pumula and Lobengula seats.

“We have received many CVs and we are looking at them,” he said.

“Zanu PF is a democratic party and primary elections will be held to elect those that will represent the party in the by-elections.”

Dube declined to mention names of some of its officials vying for the vacant seats, although Southern Eye heard that the list included senior members.

He indicated that votes cast in favour of Zanu PF in the by-elections in Bulawayo would be an indicator of the success of the door-to-door campaigns, saying the party needed over 60 000 votes.

“The door-to-door campaigns have been successful and they are ongoing,” Dube said.

“We got about 30 000 votes in the last elections and we are saying we should multiply that figure in the by-elections since we have recruited new members.

“People are joining Zanu PF in numbers.

“Some are leaving the MDCs to join us after realising that they had been taken for a ride.

“They are fed up with the MDCs.”

Zanu PF’s door-to-door campaigns in Bulawayo were launched by Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko.

Mphoko bemoaned the party’s poor performance in elections in Bulawayo and called on the provincial executive to start building the party, recruiting new members in door-to-door visits ahead of the 2018 elections.

Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere criticised the party’s Bulawayo province for spending too much time on factionalism and called on the province to put its act together and start mobilising supporters for the 2018 elections.

By-elections are set to be held to fill the 14 parliamentary seats left vacant following the recent expulsion of 21 MDC-Renewal members from Parliament.

The MDC-T that requested for the recall of its former 21 legislators retains seven of the vacant seats under proportional representation.

The MDC-Renewal has launched a court appeal challenging the expulsion of its MPs, but indicated that it would boycott the polls should the courts rule against it.