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Mr Tsvangirai

Takunda Maodza Senior Reporter
MDC-T Matabeleland North Province has admitted Zanu-PF won the July 31 harmonised elections and blamed its defeat on the imposition of candidates, a weak election manifesto and shambolic structures.The admission deals a body blow to party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s claims that the elections were rigged.

The MDC-T Matabeleland North provincial leadership met at the party’s Mpumalanga Offices in Hwange over the weekend for a post-mortem of the party’s performance in the elections and produced the damning report.

Reliable sources said the meeting — chaired by provincial chairperson Mr Sengezo Tshabangu — was attended by Mr Thembinkosi Sibindi (provincial organising secretary), Mr Warning Luphahla (provincial secretary for information and publicity), Mr Gift Mabhena (provincial secretary) and Ms Fransica Ncube (provincial elections director).

Provincial Women’s Assembly chairperson Alphina Ndlovu, Mr Ephias Mambume (provincial youth assembly secretary) and Ms Patricia Mwale (provincial women’s assembly secretary), also attended the meeting.

The report noted that there was no vote-rigging in Matabeleland North province and cited a number of reasons as to why MDC-T lost.
“We further noted that mobilisation of party structures to register as voters was poorly co-ordinated because of lack of resources from the national elections directorate.

“The youth assembly members were not participating in the campaigns and in the mobilisation exercise. Our selling points or manifesto was weak and did not address the expectations of the youths.”

The province further cited the imposition of candidates by the party leadership as another factor that cost MDC-T heavily.
“The national leadership imposed Dalumuzi Khumalo (Lupane East) and he was defeated by Zanu-PF candidate Martin Khumalo. In Lupane East, Njabuliso Mguni was imposed and lost to Sithembile Gumpo of Zanu-PF while in Hwange West the imposition of Gift Mabhena gave Zanu-PF candidate Bhekimpilo Mpofu a win on a silver platter.”

The province said serious in-house squabbles between Mr Mabhena and a party official Ms Angeline Keswa in Hwange West also contributed to the loss.

“The women’s assembly structures were in shambles while primary elections created a lot of problems. Campaign materials were inadequate compared to Zanu-PF which provided a lot of regalia and other campaign material to its members. The party’s intelligent unit also failed to take note of these challenges before the elections,” the report said.

The province also expressed disgruntlement over attempts to impose Ms Margaret Valley, a Victoria Falls businesswoman, as mayor for the resort town.

Ms Mwale yesterday confirmed the meeting by the provincial leadership on Saturday.
“We met on Saturday last week. It was an evaluation of the just ended elections and the issue of Victoria Falls mayor,” she said.

Ms Mwale would not divulge further details referring the Herald to the provincial information secretary Mr Luphahla whose mobile phone was unreachable.

Zanu-PF won seven out of 13 seats in Matabeleland North province, and made a clean sweep of Matabeleland South.
The Matabeleland North elections report deals a blow to the MDC-T leadership’s attempts to scandalize a widely-hailed  election that has been endorsed by the African Union, Sadc, Comesa,  the African Carribean and Pacific countries and the rest of the progressive world as free, peaceful, fair and credible.

It is only the Western world that was rooting for the MDC-T in the polls that has refused to accept the poll results.
Last month the MDC-T abandoned 54 aspiring legislators and paid only for 39 out of 95 losing National Assembly candidates the required US$10 000 security for costs deposit apiece.

The Constitutional Court also dismissed Mr Tsvangirai’s application that was seeking to nullify President Mugabe’s victory and declared the election as free, fair, credible and an expression of the will of Zimbabweans.