CHENGETAI ZVAUYA
Zanu-PF has completed the vetting of candidates vying to contest in the District Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections in eight provinces, a process it launched as part of its due diligence.
Harare and Bulawayo Provinces are the only provinces that successfully held their DCC elections before Covid- 19 outbreak.
The other provinces are now expected to hold elections to elect the DCC leadership. Zanu-PF secretary for security, Lovemore Matuke, confirmed that the exercise was complete but could not reveal the identity of those that have made the grade.
Matuke said the list has been submitted to the party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo, which will make a final determination soon.
“We have finished our work as deployed and directed by the party of vetting the candidates together with the Commissariat department,” Matuke said.
“We are going to stand guided by the Politburo on the way forward but I know that most of the candidates that we have vetted have been approved by the Politburo and we now wait for the elections.”
Matuke, who is also a member of the Politburo, said that Zanu-PF had managed to flush out all malcontents and those who were being linked with the G40 members.
“We know we had problems with party members accusing each other of being G40 members, correctly or wrongly, and we have sorted it out.
Some senior members were afraid of competition and started to accuse their opponents as G40 members, but we resolved it,” he said.
It is understood that the majority of legislators and Cabinet Ministers in the provinces want to contest the position of chairpersons of the DCC.
Some of the notable political figures in the contest are businessman James Makamba aiming to challenge Kazembe Kazembe, the Minister of Home Affairs and also chairperson of Mashonaland Central Province.
Member of the National Assembly for Makonde Kindness Paradza, former Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister Webster Shamu and Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi are reportedly aiming for the top positions in Mashonaland West province.
In Mashonaland East province, Transport Minister Biggie Joel Matiza is likely to be challenged by suspended ZINARA board chairperson Michael Madanha.
The DCC were dismantled by the former late president Robert Mugabe in 2012 after reports of factionalism and divisions rocked the ruling party. They were re-introduced this year.
