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This year the country goes for elections, and the ruling party Zanu PF, according to the party’s Harare Provincial chairperson Cde Goodwills Masimirembwa (GM), has put all stops to win seats in the province, below are excerpts of the interview with our Senior Reporter Joseph Madzimure (JM).
JM: What are the prospects for Zanu PF in Harare this election?
GM: It is a year of reference. The elections are going to be held this year and as Zanu PF Harare Metropolitan province, we are after victory in the Presidential, Parliamentary and local authority elections. That is our objective, that is our aim, that is what we are searching for?
JM: Harare South is an interesting constituency Cde chairman, in the 2018 harmonised elections, Zanu PF MP, Cde Tongai Mnangagwa won the seat polling 24 503 votes, MDC alliance fielded two candidates Mr Shadreck Mashayamombe got 21 366 votes while Tichaona Mr Saurombe got 7816 votes. How are you going to make sure that the 29 182 votes are back to the party?
GM: Well, when you look at Harare South, the area that we are talking about, the starting point is that the settlement was established by Zanu PF.
President Mnangagwa has gone a step further now and said the regularisation is the focus of that settlement, the issuance of tittle deeds is his gift for that settlement, this is because urban renewal is at the centre of Zanu PF’s agenda ahead of this year’s general elections, an occasion which offers the electorate the opportunity to boot out incompetent and often corrupt opposition councillors from the cities.
Over the past two decades when the opposition has been running cities, service delivery has grounded to a halt, roads are potholed, garbage goes uncollected while the city fathers line their pockets with loot from council coffers.
So all the residents of Harare South, who do not have title deeds, whose ownership of stands is precarious have been assured by President Mnangagwa that he will ensure that they are regularised and get title deeds.
It is a process and it has begun. The people have accepted that message. His Excellency has been to Harare South, we as the foot soldiers of the party have been to Harare South, explaining the development to residents that regularisation, title deeds, rehabilitation of roads, construction of hospitals, clinics and various public service institutions is the focus of the Zanu PF Government.
We are confident that the people of Harare South have realised that it is not the MDC-Alliance or Citizen Coalition for Change led council that had the solution, but it is with Central Government through President Mnangagwa.
We are definitely going to overturn that deficit. The 29 182 voters will come to Zanu PF plus 24 503 what we already have. We will be retaining Harare South, but not just retaining but winning it with a big margin.
JM: There are some reports that land barons are dishing out land in Harare to desperate home seekers, what is the ruling party position on that?
GM: There is no more land to dish-out. I think we have infighting among beneficiaries on double allocations which the Government is working on.
What is important is to identify the owner of the stand and make sure the owner is protected. Those are the issues which need to be resolved. We have highlighted that to the Government and we are confident that the issue of double allocation is being resolved through regularisation and the issuance of title deeds.
JM: Mbare is the bedrock of the revolutionary party Zanu PF, but market places like Mupedzanhamo have been closed for some time now. What are you doing to restore confidence to Mbare residents so that they vote for Zanu PF?
GM: Mupedzanhamo was closed because of Covid-19, otherwise it is operating. Now that it is supposed to have been opened long after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, the City of Harare is now coming up with a new agenda because they have realised that the majority of vendors are Zanu PF members, they are now saying we want to start afresh.
We want new occupiers. We do not want those who were there at that time.
That is not right because those who occupied those stalls have their rights, they need to be protected.
Their rights to go back to Mupedzanhamo are being infringed. They have to continue to carry on with their businesses.
It is the City Council which is causing problems at Mupedzanhamo, because they want to disposes and dis-empower those who were operating in Mudzanhamo. I hope that the relevant ministry will intervene.
We are not only talking about Mupedzanhamo; we are also talking about markets in general. What is clear and why we as Zanu PF are confident that this time around the party is going to win is that the City of Harare has failed dismally to provide Mbare residents with descent market places to conduct their businesses and to provide service to residents, despite the fact that they are paying rates.
It is the responsibility of the City Council to ensure that Mupedzanhamo is functioning properly.
You will recall that at Shawasha Grounds, there is a market there to accommodate over 5 000 people, but because of corruption within the City Council that project failed to materialise and that place remains undeveloped.
We also have Coca Cola market place, the City of Harare has failed to complete the construction of the market place, so that we decongest vendors from Harare Central Business Centre.
The city fathers have dismally failed to come up with descent market places for the people.
The market should be opened as soon as possible to ensure its intended beneficiaries start operating at their rightful places. Zanu PF is the only answer to urbanites hence they need to vote out incompetent opposition councillors.
JM: How are you going to address issues affecting Harare North in areas such as Hatcliffe?
GM: We have raised the issue concerning the development of Hatcliffe Housing consortium with the Government. There are some land developers in Hatcliffe who are swindling residents of their hard earned cash without meaningful developing the area.
The residents accused the developers for re-inventing original land sale agreements, if residents fail to pay monthly subscriptions to developers, they are threatened with evictions. There are no roads, but residents are paying their money.
This is affecting our people. It has been going on for far too long; the area is lagging behind in terms of development. We have appealed to the Ministry of Local Government to cancel the contracts of those developers because it is State land and allow the Ministry of National Housing to move in and make arrangements with the beneficiaries so that the Government offer contracts to genuine developers so that the area can be developed.
People have lost their money to developers in Hatcliffe and those developers are walking scot free while our people are being disadvantaged.
JM: What measures are you putting in place to ensure that you mobilise people to vote for Zanu PF.
GM: It is a process that we are seriously ceased with. Every day we are mobilising party members to register to vote. We are also mobilising those already registered.
We are on both fronts mobilising to vote for President and the party.
We are going to reclaim more seats in Harare.
The two critical issues that affect Harare is the human settlement issues and the income generating activities.
On both fronts the MDC-A and CCC led council has fallen short. The biggest land barons in Harare province are CCC and MDC-A councillors who are working in cahoots with council officials.
Once they took control of the City Council their councillors took all the infills in Harare open spaces. The only advantage they have over illegal settlers is that they will go and sanitise their land baron activities through council resolutions. Land in Harare has been taken over even land reserved for recreational areas and schools.
In respect of human settlement, the City of Harare has failed to deliver completely.
In respect of income generating activities, what people look for from the City Council is creation of the small business enterprises, working spaces, home industries, market places again they failed dismally. The reason why we have vendors in the Central Business District is because they have no places to operate from.
JM: Zanu PF is a mass party and everyone want to be associated with it because of its rich history, but infighting during primary elections at times cost the party, how are you going to resolve this ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections?
GM: There is bound to be friction here and there in any political organisation, but generally we are a united team. If they were frictions yesterday, we have resolved them and we will continue to try and find solutions to whatever differences that may arise within the party. The party is united than before, we are geared towards victory for our President and the party.
Online Reporter