By Lance Guma
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GWERU – Legendary Radio and TV personality Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda romped to victory by a landslide margin in MDC-T primary elections held on Wednesday to select the party’s parliamentary candidate for Vungu in the Midlands Province.
According to preliminary figures given to Nehanda Radio, Sibanda got 752 votes, beating the March 2008 MDC-T candidate for the area Mark Moyo who got 244. In third place was Senzeni Mpofu who got 3 votes. A total of four ballot papers were spoilt.
Sibanda becomes the third former ZBC broadcaster to win in MDC-T primary elections in the past few days. His close friend Eric Knight won in Mbare and former Radio 3 presenter James Maridadi won in Mabvuku-Tafara primary election.
Last year in January Nehanda Radio exclusively revealed how Sibanda had decided to throw his hat in the political ring and stand as an MDC-T parliamentary candidate in his rural home of Vungu. He is now one step closer to achieving this and awaits the general elections set for this year.
Sibanda who is admired by many in his home town for what he has achieved in over 20 years of broadcasting was introduced by the MDC-T leadership to excited crowds in Vungu over the festive season in December last year.
At the time Ezra told Nehanda Radio “the people of Vungu for many years have been pressuring me to come and be their voice. I told them some time ago that I was considering this and I feel now is the right time.”
“In my constituency nothing has happened in terms of development under the Zanu PF MP and I want to change this. As a broadcaster for 20 years I have listened to what the people want and now I feel I can articulate their issues.”
Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda is a holder of a BA degree in Media Studies from the University of Essex in London and a Master’s Degree in Psychoanalysis and Refugee Studies from the same university.
He spent over 13 years with ZBC and was famous for his programmes such as Ngisakhumbula, Ukubingelelana, Guga Mzimba, Selimathunzi sesi phindela emakhaya.
The current Zanu PF MP for Vungu, Josephat Madubeko won the seat by a narrow margin after factional fighting saw the MDC-T field two candidates, Mark Moyo and David Sabola who was later expelled for defying the party.
Making things worse was that the incumbent MP at the time, Renson Gasela was from the smaller faction of the MDC led by Welshman Ncube and this diluted the votes between the MDC formations in favour of Zanu PF.
Gasela died in a horrific car crash in April 2010.
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