ZVIMBA West MP Ziyambi Ziyambi (Zanu PF) yesterday went wild and disrupted a public hearing on electoral reforms after members of the public demanded that Zanu PF should stop vote-buying and using public funds and other government resources to bankroll its activities.
by veneranda langa
Ziyambi kept interjecting and disturbing the proceedings, as well as disrupting the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Jessie Majome.
Majome and other members of the committee briefly took Ziyambi outside the Parliament Building, where they cautioned him against disrupting the meeting.
A few minutes later, Ziyambi was at it again, causing the meeting to be aborted.
Majome later told journalists during a Press conference that: “I have never seen MPs disrupting public hearings like that, but I am optimistic the nationwide hearings will be successful.”
Most speakers had called for the disbanding of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), saying the elections management body was failing to rein in political parties engaged in vote-buying, electoral violence and intimidation.
“Recently, in Norton, Zanu PF did vote-buying and dished out food and stands to voters and Zec did nothing about it. The party has also been abusing Zimdef [Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund] and other funds supposed to benefit people to finance its activities, yet we have not seen action by Zec,” MDC-T secretary-general, Douglas Mwonzora said.
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The public also demanded that State security agents be removed from the Zec secretariat and that Justice Rita Makarau stops chairing the body because she was a civil servant.
Others alleged that the proposed biometric voters’ roll was a ploy by the ruling party to rig the 2018 elections.
There were calls for Zec to recognise the Diaspora vote, voting by prisoners and those in hospitals, and that the Central Intelligence Organisation must not meddle in the selection of election observers.
