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Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Businessman and former Zanu-PF councillor for Zvishavane’s Ward 3, Cde Francis Murombedzi, caused a stir recently at a Biometric Voter Registration centre in the mining town after he reportedly confronted officials for refusing to register one of his many children as a voter for the 10th time using the same proof of residence. Cde Murombedzi has over 10 children, most of them above 18 years of age and are eligible to register to vote.

According to witnesses, the incident occurred about a fortnight ago. Officials manning the BVR centre at the Zvishavane Government offices questioned the recurrent use of Cde Murombedzi’s Makwasha Township address when he later visited the station fuming.

“Cde Murombedzi’s address had been used for the 10th time for registration when one of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) officials then asked what was happening. Cde Murombedzi later came fuming and bragging that he was a polygamist who had fathered more that 10 children so it was his children’s right to use his address to register. He was shouting at them that he had to be restrained by police officers who latter explained to him on the technicality of using the same address more than 10 times,” said a witness, who refused to be identified.

Cde Murombedzi confirmed that one of his children failed to register as a voter with the officials saying the same address had been used many times. He said he had to then seek some proof of residence at a local school for his 18-year-old son to register as a voter.

“I have many children so it is not a crime for them to register as voters using my house water bills as proof of residence. Is polygamy and fathering many children a crime?” asked Cde Murombedzi. When asked on the number of his children, he fumed saying: “That’s none of your business. What you need to know is that I have many children and wives. So they also need to register as voters using my residential address. I do not see why ZEC denies them the right to register as voters.”