Bulawayo snubs Welshman Ncube for VP

By Jeffrey Muvundusi

MDC Bulawayo province surprisingly pushed down Welshman Ncube to the secretary-general post instead of the vice presidency where other provinces have nominated him for.

Most people had though that Bulawayo, which is Ncube’s home city would nominate him for the VP post.

The election which was reportedly marred by reports of election rigging and manipulation ran from 10am up to 2am the following day.

MDC president Nelson Chamisa, however, further extended his lead in the party’s presidential race after the province nominated him. The nomination means that Chamisa now has nine nominations out of 13.

Chamisa also turned up during the elections in the company of the national leadership where some of the irregularities were highlighted to him.

Morgen Komichi, Lilian Timveous and Tendai Biti were nominated as his deputies.

Thabita Khumalo was nominated for the national chair post with Job Sikhala being her deputy. Makokoba MP James Sithole was nominated for the provincial chair beating Nketa MP Phelelela Masuku.

Deputy mayor Tinashe Kambarami was nominated for the provincial youth chair ahead of the incumbent Mlandu Ncube.

MDC provincial spokesperson Edwin Ndlovu yesterday confirmed the new list of nominees but said: “If any programme is conducted by the national leadership it becomes national and the national spokesperson is the right person to talk to.”

Sources who spoke to this publication, however, believe the election was a circus.

“The Bulawayo provincial congress was a circus whose script was written in Harare.

“All structures where Cobra (Chamisa’s nickname) was not visible were not allowed to vote or only few of them were. Some people had to go back home imagine the meeting started at 10am but voting for youth and women only started around 5pm.

“And people were still locked out by the security which were given instructions by one Tsepiso and this was brought to the attention of Chamisa when he came around 7pm but he did nothing,” said the source.

Another source added: “Imagine having all the provincial leadership in three wings which does not have regional balance.

“Imagine Ncube also failed to get a nomination for vice president in his home province.”

But MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume yesterday dismissed the allegations of vote manipulation saying everything went well.

“Everything went on well, the attendance was huge, the delegates were happy, to see their president, they voted their new provincial executive led by Sithole.

“Everything went smoothly, yes there might be issues here and there on two or three districts but in the end they managed to vote.

“We can’t really talk of manipulation when the votes tallied, we had an electoral college so how can one manipulate votes in that way?” said Mafume. Daily News