EXCLUSIVE: Luke Tamborinyoka’s open letter to Domboshava citizens

We are now 35 days away from an election and today on the eve of a crucial plebiscite, I am sending this public message to you, my fellow Domboshava citizens.

I have always had great respect for you, the people of this sacred land of my birth and its rich mosaic of my family members, friends, in-laws and other close relatives.

Domboshava, the hallowed land of my father and mother; who were both born, bred and died here.

Domboshava, the revered area where both my wife and I come from; where we both live and where both of us will die when the Almighty’s bell finally tolls.

Firstly, I want to thank you all, my fellow Domboshava citizens here in Goromonzi West constituency, particularly the CCC family, for overwhelmingly nominating me and validating my candidature in your huge numbers to stand as the CCC’s parliamentary candidate in the forthcoming election.

The process is now complete. It was completed on the day of the nomination court last month. I have deliberately chosen this crucial hour to urge you all to support and to vote for Tinei Munetsi, the now duly nominated candidate for MP for Goromonzi West.

Oh yes, I also encourage you all to vote for our seven councillors Lloyd Mutumbi, Gilbert Kunaka, Courage Shumba, Tendai Mashingaidze, Simon Gumbi, Tonderai Murape and Tichaona Mazhambe, stoic change champions who will positively change our lives at grassroots level..

They have already won this election but I know there are some who want to derail the chances of some of these councillors. But we know they will dismally fail in that vain effort. .

Please vote for the CCC MP Tinei Munetsi as well as these seven councillors so that the agenda for change begins in a seismic bottom-up approach

But above all else, I urge you all to vote for our change champion-in-chief, President Advocate Nelson Chamisa. For in him lies the nation’s hope for the positive transformation of the lives of Zimbabweans across the length and breadth of the country.

Here in Domboshava, I want to sincerely thank all those of you who supported my candidature and publicly say the time has now come to close rank by supporting the official party candidate for MP, Tinei Munetsi..

It was never personal, but it was always about finding only one among us who could front the agenda of representing the people of this hallowed land of our birth.

Yes, our struggle has never been about positions but propositions. It has always been about the big ideas, which ideas are contained in our policy blueprint and manifesto that will be unveiled soon.

To all the opinion leaders in our community that include headmen, village heads, pastors, civil servants, friends in the Diaspora, union leaders as well as the members of women’s clubs, soccer league clubs, farmers and businessmen and women, I say thank you for your support over the years, especially in the last year when together we intensified the campaign .

We held many meetings together. We interacted a lot when you pledged to rally behind me and the party.

Once again, thank you.

I know that together, we have walked a long journey. Most of you are still bemused, especially those who phoned me in the past one month seeking to understand the dynamics. Like I told you in our conversations, I remain unwavering and unstinting in my desire for change and the positive transformation of the lives of the citizens.

Like I told you in our private conversations, I now publicly encourage you all to vote for change in Zimbabwe. I publicly urge you all to transfer your support from me to rally behind the official CCC candidate for MP, a brother and fellow change champion Tinei Munetsi. .

Indeed, Zimbabwe shall soon transform because on 23 August 2023, we are forming the next government armed with a plan. Indeed, we have a cogent plan to positively transform the lives of the citizens.

Very soon, we shall be unveiling the New Great Zimbabwe blueprint, our plan to transform and modernize Zimbabwe. I have faith in this plan because I was privileged to have been entrusted by President Nelson Chamisa to be one of the champions leading the crafting of the CCC policy blueprint that is benchmarked on the five key canons of RESTORATION, RECONCILIATION, RESTRUCTURING, TRANSFORMATION and MODERNISATION . .

From Zimbiru to Cheza, from Muchemenyi village near Denda shops to Chiyere village in Govera, from Chidombwe to Chikokonya, from Kaseke village in Pote to Matukutu, I say thank you Domboshava for your support. You all stood solidly behind me.

The time has now come to unite on the one important agenda to vote out Zanu PF on 23 August 2023. We must vote in the CCC team in its entirety from President Nelson Chamisa right down to the CCC councillors in the seven wards, including the CCC MP for Goromonzi West.

The bigger agenda was always to vote out Zanu PF. It was never personal but about the bigger agenda of transforming the lives of the people.

Our internal campaign was a moment. But moments come and go. It is epochs and eras that have always been more enduring. With our imminent victory in this election, we shall begin the positive transformation of the lives of the people.

I thank you all for your overwhelming endorsement for me personally. I heard your loud support and was humbled when the majority of you nominated me in four out of the seven wards. .

I was humbled again when the majority of you endorsed me at the citizens’ validation ‘ caucus.It was overwhelming and chastening, particularly in wards 19, 2 and 8 where your hugely astounding figures spoke for themselves and tilted the total constituency tally in my favour.

I now have another national assignment to prosecute in our collective quest to liquidate this dictatorship come 23 August 2023.

Fellow Domboshavans, we were together in the past few years when we did quite a lot to further the citizens’ agenda in this land that we all love.

In tears and in laughter, we shared both moments together.

Indeed, at all those funerals and at those weddings across the whole constituency, we cried and danced together respectively.

In Mawanga ward two, we were together when we spent days repairing that road from Makumbe to Murungweni village (kwaShereni ). We ate and drank together as we worked to repair our road network, a task at which the regime had dismally failed. .

At Pote Secondary School some three years ago, I financially chipped in during the construction and painting of the school lab.

We travelled that journey together and I was humbled by your support, especially when the Zanu PF councillor for the then ward 5, Patson Chogugudza, did not want us to accompany our donation with a speech, which you had demanded.

Chogugudza eventually backed down after you, the citizens, remained resolute that we must be allowed to speak because we had done a good job in uplifting our community school.

In the same Pote area, we were together when we repaired that road near Pote shopping centre on independence day in 2021. Chogugudza again came and sought to interfere with our community work. Again, I was humbled by your support.

Three years ago, I was again humbled by your overwhelming support when I assisted a partially blind but talented poet from the Taziva area of Pote, Collen Kajokoto.

Today, he is on a fully sponsored US$65 000 scholarship that I facilitated for him outside the country. You were behind me on that journey when I assisted this gifted son of our hallowed land of Domboshava.

Today, the talented poet who was once brutalised for his poignant art, is a writer-in-residence at an esteemed institution outside the country. From his new base in Europe, Kajokoto has written me a letter that I shall publish in my weekly column later this week. A touching letter that made my eyes wet with tears.

Late last year, I saw your support again when I brought in an organisation that trained women in Zimbiru. The women received training in leadership and in running various community projects.

After the two day trainings in Zimbiru, I then provided a commuter omnibus for our beloved women who had not registered to vote to be taken to the registration centre. I saw your support in that endeavour as well.

Indeed, we had hearty laughs and chats when I personally assisted in the transportation of 1 317 first time voters across the constituency to the registration centres in Harare and to the local registration centres when the mobile teams visited our area. From Mutonda to Mutanhaurwa, I was humbled by your support in that regard.

At my own polling station at Tsatse school, I personally assisted the registration of 47 first time voters, including my own son Leslie, who will vote for the first time on 23 August.

Yes, we did that together, with you solidly behind me.

There were a few others who did not believe in me, some who hated me, and others who spewed nothing but vitriol and malice around my name. One of them even created chat groups and would attack me by proxy.

They would behind the scenes write messages for the few known characters in South Africa and Botswana to attack my name and brand on chat groups that they had created for that purpose.

I say thanks to you all. You did what you deemed fit and I take no offence at all as it was all part of the political moment. That is the nature of life that we always have some who put a premium on moments and not on epochs..

I have always been resolute and consistent in this struggle. I know you supported me because I have maintained my fidelity to the cause.

Let us all transact inclusive politics, for our change agenda is for EVERYONE. True champions do not exclude and do not reject. Indeed, one cannot whimsically delete or expunge the rich individual contributions to a collective struggle.

One man cannot by himself surround an anthill to catch his prey. Rume rimwechete harikombe churu. Let us remember that we all need each other and that we are in this together.

There were also some who backed other candidates in our internal competition, Champions Jorum Murape and Tinei Munetsi I say thank you to both my colleagues and those who supported them. Thank you for making our democracy work.

It was your democratic right to follow your own choice and I salute you for that.

Now we must close rank and support one parliamentary candidate and one agenda. My fellow Domboshava citizens, please vote for all the CCC candidates.

Thank you Domboshava for the support. My only plea to all of you, particularly those who supported my candidature, is that the bigger agenda has always been to vote out this clueless Zanu PF lot and usher in a new, transformative leadership led by the change champion-in-chief, Advocate Nelson Chamisa.

I urge you, fellow Domboshavans, to vote Advocate Nelson Chamisa for President, Tinei Munetsi for MP and the seven CCC councillors across Goromonzi West.

Let’s teach Zanu PF a lesson by kicking them out on 23 August 2023

Your fellow Domboshava citizen,

Luke Batsirai Tamborinyoka