ZANU PF member of the National Consultative Assembly Noah Mangondo’s move to stand as an independent candidate has shaken his party in Mashonaland East with provincial leaders expected to embark on a massive campaign to avoid embarrassment.
BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
Mangondo, a former central committee member, on Thursday successfully filed his nomination papers to contest for the Murewa South seat against Zanu PF provincial chairperson Joel Biggie Matiza.
There were wild jubilations outside Marondera Magistrates’ Court after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) provincial chief elections officer Collins Munetsi read out Mangondo’s name as his followers welcomed the decision.
This paper is reliably informed that Zanu PF leadership is set for a massive campaign in Murewa South to avoid embarrassment in the July 30 elections as Mangondo reportedly has a huge support base in the constituency.
The Zanu PF management committee reportedly met yesterday, with reports that Mangondo and other “rebels” would be fired from the party.
Frantic efforts to get a comment from Matiza were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered.
Mangondo yesterday said he did not regret contesting as an independent candidate, saying the move was triggered by how the revolutionary party failed to entertain petitions by the electorate.
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“It is not shocking [sacking], I was expecting that. But the truth remains, the party failed its people. The war veterans appealed, traditional leadership as well as the people, whose more than 10 000 signatures were on the petitions. I am just a messenger of the people, otherwise they were going to vote for the opposition. I am not regretting it,” he said.
Mangondo is also Zanu PF’s former chairman of the fundraising commitee.
Other Zanu PF members who filed their nomination papers as independent candidates include Richard Mavhunga (Marondera West), Eugene Makore (Goromonzi South) and Oswald Gwanzura (Goromonzi South).
Meanwhile, Goromonzi South constituency recorded the highest number of candidates in the province totalling 15 followed by Seke with nine.
