No shocks from MDC-T primaries in Matabeleland South

By Tichaona Sibanda

Voting passed off peacefully in the MDC-T primary elections in Matabeleland South on Monday and with a general election looming the party is already targeting highly prized ZANU PF seats in the province. 

Watchy Sibanda, the Mat South provincial chairman, told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the peaceful nature of the internal poll can be attributed to the establishment of a more democratic political system in the party.

‘The most important thing is there was no imposition of candidates. Secondly we had a voters roll that was agreed to by all contesting candidates and the process was determined by secret balloting,’ Sibanda.

The MDC-T only holds two seats in the province out of 13. National chairman Lovemore Moyo held the Matobo North seat before he was elevated to speaker of Parliament. He stood unchallenged in the primaries on Monday.

Incumbent MP for Matobo South, Gabriel Ndebele, was confirmed while seven other candidates won the right to stand on an MDC-T ticket in the harmonized elections, following fiercely contested primaries.

These are Bekezela Mpofu (Insiza North), Jabulani Dube (Insiza South), Moffat Ndou (Beitbridge West), Ekem Moyo (Gwanda South), Juliet Nkiwane (Gwanda Central), Morgan Ncube (Beitbridge East) and Ready Mpofu (Bulilima West).

Primaries in four constituencies—Mangwe, Gwanda North, Umzingwani and Bulilima East— were postponed to the 8th June due to logistical problems.

Sibanda said the leadership of the party has taken encouragement from the primaries after certain sections of the media had predicted the exercise would be marred by violence.

The chairman insisted their party had ‘never been in better shape’ as he laid down the gauntlet to rival ZANU PF, saying they are out to grab as many seats in the province as possible.

‘The first seat we’re targeting is that of Kembo Mohadi (co-Home Affairs Minister). If David was able to defeat Goliath, then we can do it also in his backyard of Beitbridge East,’ Sibanda said.

Abednico Bhebhe, the deputy national organising secretary, said their call for peace during elections has paid dividends as every candidate was placing the nation’s interests first.

‘Our primary elections have so far been free and fair, they’ve passed off peacefully without major incident. Yet ZANU PF and its state media has spent days hunting for instances of alleged malpractice to tie together, to support their preconceived theory that the election would be unfair,’ Bhebhe said.

Bhebhe, who stood unopposed in Nkayi South in Mat North on Tuesday, said there is no doubt the latest claims of ‘chaos’ by the state media will also evaporate on close inspection of their exercise. SW Radio Africa