Suspended party members future hangs in balance
THE future of six senior ZANU-PF party members in the Midlands Province, whom the provincial executive recommended to be suspended, now hangs in the balance after the National Disciplinary Committee delayed in responding ahead of the primary elections.
Those suspended include former ministers Fred Moyo, Chiratidzo Mabuwa, Francis Nhema, senior party members Cdes Tsitsi Zhou, Tremendous Musara and Tafanana Zhou.
The six, among others, were suspended over alleged misconduct chief among them their involvement in the G40 cabal machinations and creating parallel structures within the party.
This means, if the decision is upheld by the National Disciplinary Committee, these party members will be ordinary card-carrying members and will not be eligible to participate in the primary elections or any other election during the time of their suspension.
However, the Zanu-PF National Disciplinary Committee is yet to respond to the province leaving the members in dilemma.
In an interview, Zanu-PF Midlands provincial chairman Engineer Daniel McKenzie Ncube said the recommendations were submitted to the National Disciplinary Committee for deliberations.
He said the National Disciplinary Committee is yet to respond.
“As an organ of the party, we made this decision and we will submit our recommendations to the National Disciplinary Committee. As a province we are saying we have not expelled these members but we will work with them at cell (village) level while they serve their suspensions.
“We are yet to get to a response from the National Disciplinary Committee,” he said.
Cde Tafanana Zhou was suspended for three years while Cde Tsitsi Zhou has been slapped with a two-year suspension. Cde Chiratidzo Mabuwa was also slapped with a three-year suspension because she was a repeat offender.
Cde Fred Moyo also got a three-year suspension for his involvement in the G40 machinations and is also a repeat offender.
Cde Nhema, who was running parallel structures in Shurugwi, has been suspended for three years. Councillors Tremendous Musara and Chiripai Chipondeni have been suspended for two years.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF Midlands provincial leadership has recommended the suspension of Kwekwe Central legislator Cde Masango Matambanadzo for alleged insubordination and creating parallel structures.
Party provincial spokesperson Cornelius Mpereri confirmed the suspension saying the decision was reached after all due processes were followed.
“We have reached the decision after all due processes have been conducted. This was after the disciplinary committee sat down and went over the matter before making the decision,” said CdeMpereri.
The recommendation, he said, had been forwarded to the national executive who are expected to come up with the final decision.
“Party protocol stipulates that we can only recommend and give it to the national committee which will then come up with the final decision,” he said.
Cde Mpereri said Cde Matambabanadzo has since been served with the suspension letter and his secretary, Ms Angela Nyathi, confirmed receiving the suspension letter.
“Yes, we did receive the suspension letter but I cannot comment further than that,” she said.
According to the suspension letter seen by this paper, which was signed by deputy provincial chairman, Cde Goodwills Shiri, who also chairs the disciplinary committee, Cde Matambanadzo was barred from conducting any party business for 21 days.
“You are hereby served with this prohibition order in terms of Section 79 (1) of the ZANU-PF constitution. The effect of this prohibition is to suspend you forthwith from your position in the party and all party activities for a period of 21 days from the date of receipt of this notice,” read part of the letter.
Cde Matambanadzo was once involved in a physical fist fight with Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister Owen Ncube that resulted in him being prosecuted before the courts.
Much liked in the gold rich city of Kwekwe, Cde Matambanadzo has often been accused of abusing his popularity in the city to unleash a reign of terror on his enemies as well as instructing vendors to defy council directives. ZVISHAVANE Town Council says it is working on reducing the housing backlog, which currently stands at 4 600.
The town is growing fast and there is overpopulation in high-density areas.
In an interview last week, town secretary Mr Tinoda Mukutu said they were going to allocate more stands to reduce the housing backlog.
“Our housing waiting list is dominated by those who are seeking high-density stands, which are 2 805, while low-density home-seekers are currently 1 203.”
Mr Mukutu said the waiting list also has 172 industrial stands and 382 for commercial stands, while there are 63 applications for church stands.
“There are three private players who have applied for land to develop a private hospital and two private clinics that will be later turned into hospitals. We believe such developments in the provision of health services are critical as the population in the town is growing,” he said.
Mr Mukutu said the opening up of a campus in Zvishavane by the Midlands State University had increased demand for stands. He said they were also plans for council to take over administration of Shabanie Mine’s Maglass and Kandodo high-density suburbs.
“Provision of services such as water and sewer reticulation will soon be in the hands of council. Traditionally, such services were being provided for by Shabanie Mine.” KWEKWE City Council is finalising assessment of the performance of demo-prepaid water meters, which were installed around the city with the view of adopting the best performing ones.
The local authority last year contracted three companies to install demo-prepaid water meters around Kwekwe so that they can assess their performance.
In an interview yesterday, Kwekwe city director of works Engineer John Mhike said the local authority was now at the final stages of assessment and expect to roll out the prepaid water meter programme around the city starting next month.
“We are at an assessment stage for the last six months after three companies installed 300 prepaid water meters on selected houses and buildings.
“We have been assessing the performance of these meters and we will identify the best performing ones,” he said.
Eng Mhike said they were expecting to rollout the programme next month.
“It seems the pilot project is working well and we hope by next month we will start rolling out the prepaid meter programme to the entire city,” he said.
Although he could not be drawn to reveal the type of meters the local authority was likely to adopt, Eng Mhike said three companies supplied the meters and they will choose one type out of the three.