Nomination Court: A moment of truth
vote him into power.
In an article carried by our sister paper The Herald, the five pledges are — leveraging the huge investment wave to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in agriculture, mining, tourism, the service sector and new infrastructure projects, have zero tolerance to corruption with anyone found guilty of corruption being fired and punished accordingly.
President Mnangagwa is also pledging to develop infrastructure worthy of a new Zimbabwe by increasing power generation, constructing a new railway network and dualising all major roads.
Further, the President intends to establish a modern and affordable health care system for all by reducing hospital fees by 50 percent, improving supply of critical drugs, guaranteeing free healthcare to all cancer patients and building 78 new hospitals, ensuring one hospital per district.
These developments come on the back of strides by the President Mnangagwa-led Government to reposition the country on the international arena by engaging those countries with whom relations were previously hostile while strengthening ties with those countries that had stood with Zimbabwe during its years of isolation.
President Mnangagwa’s Government has also attracted more than $16 billion in potential investment in what has been interpreted as the success of the re-engagement drive.
On the part of the MDC-T, for the first time since 2000, the party will not be submitting nomination papers for Morgan Tsvangirai as its presidential candidate following his death on February 14.
After Tsvangirai’s death, the party split into two factions; one led by Mr Nelson Chamisa and another fronted by Dr Thokozani Khupe with the two embroiled in a legal wrangle over the rights to the MDC-T brand and symbols.
The Mr Chamisa faction goes to the polls under the banner of the MDC Alliance, a coalition with other parties like the Professor Welshman Ncubeled MDC. Recently another faction of the National Patriotic Front aligned to Mr Mugabe endorsed the lawyer’s bid. The other NPF faction, led by Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri (Retired), will go to the polls without entering into any coalition.
The Chamisa faction goes to the Nomination Court with a number of disgruntled members beaten in the primary elections marred by chaos and violence. There have been allegations of imposition of candidates and intimidation with veteran legislators like Ms Jessie Majome opting to contest the forthcoming elections as independents.
In a sign of growing discontent in the party, Mr Chamisa’s deputy Engineer Elias Mudzuri alleged that rich strangers were being imposed at the expense of poor loyalists.
In a bid to quell growing discontent, the Mr Chamisa faction announced that it would not subject some of its senior members to the primary elections with the likes of Eng Mudzuri being included on the party’s senatorial list.
However, the intervention was not enough to quell the chaos as it continued unabated with some losing candidates who felt their complaints were not attended to being assaulted outside the MDC-T headquarters in Harare as they tried to seek audience with Mr Chamisa.
Reports from Bulawayo structures also indicate that the faction is facing a shortage of candidates to contest in the polls and has resorted to convincing members to take part in the polls.
The Dr Khupe faction has capitalised on the chaos rocking the Mr Chamisa grouping by receiving disgruntled members. Despite claims that they would field candidates countrywide, the Dr Khupe grouping is yet to come up with a full list of candidates to contest in the respective constituencies.
Outside the MDC Alliance is the People’s Rainbow Coalition led by Dr Joice Mujuru in alliance with a faction of the People’s Democratic Party which separated from their former leader Mr Tendai Biti who is backing Mr Chamisa.
The PRC, like the Dr Khupe faction, is yet to come up with a national list of candidates representing it in the constituencies.
As per tradition around this time, many political parties have been formed, perhaps the only time the country has the highest number of “presidents” but the Nomination Court presents a moment of truth separating real candidates from pretenders.
Most importantly, it marks an important step towards the holding of the historic polls on July 30.