adminThandeka Moyo Chronicle Correspondent
RENOWNED boxing trainer Philip “Striker” Ndlovu was arrested this week for duping prospective voters into giving up their registration slips in a bid to prevent them from voting in the harmonised elections. Ndlovu, of Makokoba, who was working in cahoots with MDC-T officials on Wednesday paid a fine at the police for the alleged offence.
The trainer who has handled many boxers among them the country’s heavyweight champion, Thamsanqa Dube was reportedly targeting well known Zanu-PF supporters registering at Lotshe Primary School in Makokoba. He allegedly tricked the elderly Mrs Rebecca Ncube into giving him her slip and promised her a Zanu-PF T-shirt.
Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo confirmed the incident yesterday and said Ndlovu was fined $10 for criminal nuisance and for disturbing social relations. “We received a report of Mr Philip Ndlovu who took away a voter’s slip from Mrs Rebecca Ncube in Makokoba. We charged Ndlovu with criminal nuisance and made him pay a deposit fine of $10.
“We would like to advise like minded people to desist from impinging on the rights of potential voters because we will arrest them. Forewarned is forearmed,” said Insp Moyo.
In an interview yesterday, Gogo MaNcube (65) of House Number 12076 Makokoba said she was almost tricked into not voting by Ndlovu who appeared believable.
“I went to Lotshe Primary School on Wednesday to register and met Striker on my way home at the school gate. He was carrying a book registering people who were coming out of Lotshe. He then approached me and asked for my voter’s slip that I was carrying,” said Gogo MaNcube.
“I complied because I knew him and also needed the T-shirt that he promised me. He emphasised that the slip was going to be used in distributing T-shirts later at the Zanu-PF offices in Makokoba. However, I was shocked in the evening at around 5pm when I went to the offices and was told there was no such arrangement,” she said.
Gogo MaNcube said the officials in the office helped her locate Ndlovu who was found at the Lotshe gate and the matter was reported to the police. “We questioned Striker who confessed that he was trying to rob me. He returned my slip and police fined him $10 for trying to trick an elderly person like me,” she said.
A Zanu-PF official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ndlovu was in the company of 10 other people and had spent the day at Lotshe.
“These people were seen at Lotshe using a white Isuzu believed to be belonging to MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairman Mr Gorden Moyo. On Tuesday we were approached by many residents saying they had come to collect their Zanu-PF T-shirts as they had submitted their registration slips.
We did not take them seriously until yesterday when Gogo MaNcube approached us saying Ndlovu had collected her voter’s slip as well,” said the official.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Moyo, who is standing in Makokoba were fruitless as his cellphone was continuously not reachable.
Online Reporter