‘I’ve a passion to transform Zvishavane’ John Holder

“I have inherited the constituency from a Zanu-PF candidate, I won’t throw it away and that is a promise,” declares Zanu-PF candidate for Zvishavane-Ngezi constituency Cde John Holder.

Cde Holder, a 46 year-old entrepreneur, the son of a well-known industrialist and busmen, Mr Phil Hall of Shu-Shine Bus Service says he was born in Zvishavane and would do anything to improve the welfare of people of the area.

“My father was a firm supporter of the liberation struggle and he taught us the importance of the liberation struggle to Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and development,” he said.
Cde Holder joined politics in 1987, starting from the cell and working with Cde Special who was then a youth leader in Zvishavane.

He continued to be an active member and rose through the ranks to become Zanu-PF Zvishavane District Co-ordinating Committee vice chairman and later its chairman.
Owing to his hard work in the party and district, he was elected secretary for the disabled in the Midlands Provincial Co-ordinating Committee, a position he currently holds.

“I was approached by the people of Zvishavane to contest in the primaries. It had never crossed my mind that in 2013 I would be contesting for the National Assembly seat. After giving it careful thought, I then accepted the call and presented my name for the elections.

“When your people want you to lead them, there is nothing that you can do, but obey. They would have seen something in you that can be beneficial to the community.
“So I obeyed and stood in the primaries and won the right to represent Zanu-PF in Zvishavane-Ngezi constituency,” he said.

Cde Holder will lock horns with Mr Mike Timevous of MDC-T and Mr Alouis Zhou, an independent candidate.
He said his love for Zanu-PF was nurtured in his early childhood where he interacted with liberation fighters who came to see his father.

Cde Holder says his father helped provide food, clothes and oil for machine guns.
Although he was still a boy, Cde Holder has a grasp of the role played by his father during the war of liberation when.

“My father had a special relationship with freedom fighters that he managed to inculcate them in all his children. All these events were in our eyes and today I can narrate all the events. I have taken it upon myself to make sure he delivers to Zimbabwe.

“I can still recall two comrades coming to our place to collect food, blankets and jeans and these were Cde Bangaguru and Cde Chapungu. They would take time to talk to my father before disappearing in the woods.

“My father had mastered the art of smuggling food and clothes to freedom fighters as it was illegal that time.
“It was easy to smuggle the goods in his buses from Masvingo and Harare. I still have vivid pictures of one of his buses carrying people to Harare for the Independence celebrations,” Cde Holder said.

In a bid to improve the lives of the people, Cde Holder helped launch Zvishavane-Mberengwa Miners Association in 2002, a grouping that seeks to improve the lives and operations of small-scale miners in the district.

Today, the association has over 300 members who range from millers and custom millers.
Cde Holder said the association has benefited many small-scale miners in the region because they formalised their operations and even when operation Chikorokoza Chapera was launched, it didn’t affect them.

The association was founded with the blessings of former Midlands Governor Cde Cephas Msipa.
“Through the assistance of the former governor Cde Msipa we formed the Zvishavane-Mberengwa Miners Association whose main purpose was to formalise mining so that we have a platform to interact and have working relations with Government.

“This association helped small-scale miners in the mineral-rich district. I have been working with the people and this endeared me with the people who kept asking me to represent them,” he said.

Cde Holder said he was keen to see small miners in the area prosper, including the reopening of Shabani Mines with assistance from Government.
“The reopening of Shabani Mine is long overdue. Our people need the jobs. I will make it one of my priorities once elected into office.

“I am sure my people are confident in me that together we can transform Zvishavane into a mining hub of the region”, he said.
Cde Holder has spearheaded lots of projects in the district especially in mining which is his area of specialty.

He has helped secure mining equipment for youths in the area.
“I want to make sure that the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme delivers to the nation and the people of the area.

“Zanu-PF has given us policies that have enabled us improve our socio-economic status and so we as beneficiaries must respond accordingly. The only thank you that we can give to President Mugabe for all he has done for people in Zvishavane-Ngezi is our vote.
“I am a hard worker. I was groomed by my father to work hard and I have shown it in my works. I only promise those things that I can achieve.

“I hate being a failure. I want to bring everyone in Zvishavane to work for the success of the district and country at large.
“Zimbabwe needs every district to become economically active so that people can benefit. President Mugabe has done his part it is now our time to carry on,” Cde Holder said.

Zvishavane is growing through mining with vast minerals among them gold, platinum; diamonds and many others, a development that Cde Holder says will help him realise his goals.

“My passion is to transform Zvishavane into one of the best towns in the country. I have dreams for the town of Zvishavane, I want it transformed into an envy of the country.
“This however, requires the support of all of us and with the trajectory that we have taken as people of the area that won’t be long,” Cde Holder said.

Cde Holder attended Jeffrey Hooper Primary in Zvishavane before going to Nashville High in Gweru for his secondary education.
He is married to Adelaide Elizabeth De Silva and the couple has six children.

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