Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) MP, Simbaneuta Mudarikwa says there is no room for opposition parties, claiming over 80 000 people in the constituency will vote for President Robert Mugabe in next year’s elections.
By Munesu Nyakudya
Mudarikwa said this on Tuesday at the official handover of an irrigation scheme sponsored by World Vision in Mudzi district.
“There is no opposition for Zanu PF in UMP. If anything happened, the opposition may only get votes out of spoiled papers, but we usually get more spoiled papers than the actual votes of all opposition parties in total,” he said.
“We are campaigning every day, telling our people about the importance of the Chimurenga war and we cannot speak about it without mentioning President Robert Mugabe’s name, and this year, we will have over 80 000 voters voting for President Mugabe.”
UMP has proved to be a no-go area for opposition parties, with the ruling party and Mugabe always garnering their highest votes in the constituency amid reports of widespread violence and intimidation against mostly MDC-T supporters.
Mudarikwa also said that he would move a motion in Parliament to have laws that ensure that locals benefit from natural resources such as gold.
“I will move a motion in the august House that there are some critical amendments, which have to be done to the Mines and Minerals Act to free gold for Zimbabweans,” he said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“The gold has to benefit Zimbabweans. As long as we are selling it to Fidelity, why should we punish the artisanal miners? There are some people, who are serving jail terms for possession of a few grammes of gold valued at 50c.
They go to jail for five years. That is unacceptable. So we want to make sure that we increase on the amount of gold sold to Fidelity by decriminalising the possession of gold.
“These people should be allowed to dig gold freely for the betterment of our economy. It’s so easy to reach a billion dollars as Zimbabweans with gold alone, without even talking about other minerals.”
World Vision acting operations manager, Amon Matsongoni said over $65 000 was used to set up the irrigation project.
