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Cde Chabaya

George Maponga recently in BIKITA —
Despite being the only female candidate amongst a cast of six contestants for the Bikita West parliamentary seat in the forthcoming January 21 by-election, Zanu-PF’s choice Cde Beauty Chabaya says with runaway confidence that nothing will stop her from being declared the Member of Parliament for the swing constituency.

A businesswoman and mother of two, Cde Chabaya (41) will battle it out with five other candidates for the right to represent Bikita West in Parliament after the seat fell vacant following the jailing of legislator for the constituency Munyaradzi Kereke last year.

Kereke, a former advisor to the immediate past Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono, was slapped with a 10-year jail sentence for raping his then 11-year-old niece, forcing him to relinquish the seat he had won on a Zanu PF ticket in the 2013 harmonised elections.

The ebullient businesswoman, who beat nine other candidates in ZANU PF primary elections, says she is motivated by revenge in her quest to help Zanu-PF retain the Bikita West parliamentary seat.

Cde Chabaya served as campaign manager for her political “mentor’’ Cde Cecilia Chabaya, her now 72-year-old mother and veteran ZANU-PF member.

Cde Chabaya’s mother – who served as ZANU-PF Masvingo Women’s League provincial executive member for 22 years – contested and lost the 2008 Bikita senatorial poll to Dr Kokerai Rugara of the MDC-T.

She says that experience of having to contend with her mother losing the Bikita Senate elections in 2008 to an MDC-T person when she was her mother’s campaign manager spurred her to seek revenge, hence the decision to contest in the forthcoming Bikita West by-election.

“I am driven by the desire to revenge in my battle to help Zanu-PF retain the Bikita West seat because I think if I manage to win the seat my mother will be very happy and be at peace for the rest of her life.

“I grew up in a politically-active family and my parents’ dance with Zanu-PF dates back to the formative years of the Second Chimurenga in the early 1960s when my late father Adam Chabaya and my mother were leading figures in plotting resistance against Rhodesian colonial rule in Bikita District.

“When the opportunity to represent ZANU-PF in Bikita West arose, I never hesitated to take it up because I think if I win, it will be the greatest ever gift to my ailing mother who initiated me into politics until I became a member of the ZANU-PF Masvingo Women’s League where I am serving right now,” she said

Cde Chabaya is the Secretary for Economic Affairs in the ZANU-PF Masvingo provincial Women’s League executive since 2012 and says President Mugabe and her mother are her role models.

“President Mugabe is my hero because he is a principled man who never wavers from following what he believes is right no matter how much pressure is put on him. His record as a Pan-Africanist committed to total emancipation of blacks the world over is well-known and I am happy to be associated with him especially considering that my parents started being active members of ZANU nearly five decades ago.

“Black people in Zimbabwe today own companies and run businesses, which was the preserve of white men, thanks to President Mugabe’s deliberate policies to economically empower previously marginalised black people in this country. I think it will be hard to find another leader like him and for that he will always be my hero,” purred Cde Chabaya.

She says her mother’s steadfast and resolute support for ZANU-PF from the pre-independence era up today was also a source of inspiration for the aspiring Bikita West legislator.

“My mother is my role model just like President Mugabe because everything that is me today is because of the lessons that I leant from her. She is one person who never shies away from doing what she believes is right and she is very strong and principled.”

Cde Chabaya said her other source of inspiration in her drive to become the next Bikita West legislator was to finish the job left uncompleted by Kereke, her one-time senior at school.

“I intend to fill the shoes of Munyaradzi Kereke and continue with the vision he had charted for Bikita West constituency. He was my senior at school and someone I looked up to since we both hail from Bikita district,” said Cde Chabaya.

Should she be victorious in the January 21 poll, Cde Chabaya would become the third legislator for Bikita West to have attended Silveira High School. Other alumni are Kereke and Retired Colonel Claudious Makova.

Cde Chabaya felt honoured that very senior Zanu-PF leaders including Acting President and Zanu-PF Second Secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa, National Political Commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, together with Politburo member Cde Josaya Hungwe had already been to Bikita West to help drum up support for her candidature in the January 21 parliamentary by-election.

While happy with the support from the ZANU-PF leadership, she said the major concern for her supporters in her ongoing campaigns in Bikita West was food shortages.

“There is not enough food and people are in dire need of food aid. My appeal to authorities is that they should increase food relief deliveries not only in Bikita West but the entire province because many families are in urgent need of food,” she said.

Cde Chibaya said she was committed to working for the people of Bikita West should she triumph in the election.

“I will not rest on my laurels if I win the January 21 by-election because I know this election is a dress rehearsal for next year’s harmonised polls. My main priority at the moment is to make sure that there is adequate water for people in Bikita West.

“I will push for the rehabilitation of Jaravaza irrigation scheme which is not fully functional at the moment because of water problems.

“There is also Chiverevere dam in Mupamaonde that needs to be rehabilitated so that people and livestock can have reliable water supply,” she said

The aspiring ZANU-PF Bikita West legislator said she will also push Government to rehabilitate or drill more boreholes across Bikita West to ease chronic shortages of drinking water amongst rural villagers.

“I also want to initiate various projects to empower rural women who I feel are still sitting at the periphery as far as participating in economic activities is concerned. I also feel that the political leadership in Bikita should engage Bikita Lithium mine so that the company expands its assistance programmes to surrounding communities who must also benefit from the extraction of the lithium resource in their area,” added Cde Chabaya.

Come January 21, she is confident she will triumphantly march to Parliament after resoundingly winning the Bikita West parliamentary by-election.

“I know Bikita West has been regularly changing hands but I am very confident of helping Zanu-PF to retain the seat in the coming by-election and I am sure I will earn the people’s trust and stay on as legislator for the constituency for many years to come,” said Cde Chabaya.

A sixth born in a family of eight, Cde Chabaya attended Gokomere Primary School before proceeding to Silveira High School for her secondary education.

In the January 21 by-election, Cde Chabaya will square up against former ZANU-PF national Youth League member Mr Kudakwashe Gopo, who is the ZimPF candidate in the election.

Also in the running is former University of Zimbabwe student leader Mr Madock Chivasa, who will contest the by-election on a National Constitutional Assembly ticket.

Other aspiring candidates are Mr Heya Shoko, a former health worker, standing as an independent, Bikita Lithium Mine employee Mr Innocent Muzvimbiri and Mr Terrence Makumbo of the Progressive Democrats of Zimbabwe party.