dyton mupawaenda
George Maponga–Masvingo Bureau
ZANU PF’s landslide victory in Saturday’s Gutu West by-election shows that the revolutionary party remains the only party of choice in Masvingo Province in particular and Zimbabwe in general, the revolutionary party’s leadership in the province has said.
The party’s candidate, Zanu PF Deputy Secretary for Youth Affairs in the Politburo, Cde John Paradza, landed the seat after polling 12 147 votes.
Of all his three challengers, none of them got 2 000 votes, indicating the huge gap in popularity between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition.
Independent candidate Mr Sebastian Mudzingwa garnered 1 775 votes to clinch second spot while the CCC came a dismal third with 1 258 votes for Mr Ephraim Morudu. Mr Robson Kurwa of NCA settled for the wooden spoon with 138 votes
The by-election was occasioned by the death of Mr Christopher Mutonho, who had filed papers to contest the parliamentary seat in the August harmonised elections, but died in an accident before the day, prompting the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to postpone the elections.
Zanu PF’s leadership in Masvingo has lauded Cde Paradza’s huge win, saying it further consolidates the revolutionary party’s grip on the political landscape in the province.
Politburo member Cde Lovemore Matuke, who is the Zanu PF Secretary for Security, hailed Cde Paradza’s big win saying it was a dividend of the party’s unity in Masvingo.
“The victory by Cde Paradza in Gutu West last weekend and the big margin shows that Zanu PF continues to grow from strength to strength in Masvingo.
“It is confirmation that the people of Zimbabwe now fully appreciate that the CCC offers nothing to them, that is why the opposition party came a distant third even behind an independent candidate.
“The people are now clearly fed up with the confusion and chaos in the opposition CCC party,” said Cde Matuke.
He added that the victory was also an endorsement of the tangible projects being implemented by President Mnangagwa and his Government, and the unity among the people of Masvingo.
“People are very happy with game-changing projects that have been rolled out and have a direct bearing on their lives as Zimbabwe marches towards becoming an upper-middle income society by 2030.
“These are the results of the obtaining unity in ZANU PF in Masvingo.
“They also confirm that there is a crisis in the opposition and all their previous claims of rigging have been trashed by this big win byZanu PF,” said Cde Matuke.
Despite the opposition’s unfounded claims of vote rigging in Gutu West, they had polling agents everywhere, who never complained about the conduct of the polls.
“Zanu PF is now the only game in town in Masvingo and the province. We now control 24 out of 26 constituencies in this province but I want to boldly say those mistakes (of losing Masvingo Urban and Chiredzi Central to the opposition) will never happen again,” said Cde Matuke.
Zanu PF Masvingo provincial chair Cde Robson Mavhenyengwa said the big win in Gutu West was due to team work and unity.
“Cde Paradza’s victory shows that Zanu PF retains its close connection with the people of Masvingo, the people of Masvingo still trust their party and President Mnangagwa,” he said.
Cde Mavhenyengwa noted that while Cde Paradza had garnered more than 12 000 votes in the by-election, President Mnangagwa won over 14 000 votes in Gutu West in August.
“The focus now moves to delivering on our election promises and we will deliver. In Gutu West we promised schools, clinics and boreholes, and the Zanu PF-led Government is doing exactly that.
“There were very few schools and clinics in Gutu West, which was predominated by commercial farms but that is now changing with new schools and clinics coming up,” said Cde Mavhenyengwa.
Cde Paradza saluted the people of Gutu West for giving him a fresh mandate, and promised to use the new opportunity to complete all the projects he started in 2018.
“I also want to extend profound gratitude to President Mnangagwa for his people-centred projects, especially the devolution programme. They made my job of campaigning very easy because we were telling people about projects they were seeing,” he said.
Online Reporter