ZVISHAVANE - Zanu (PF) has hatched a plan to depose Zvishavane Town Council's MDC-T chairman, Alois Zhou.
The plan was put into motion two weeks ago when Zanu (PF) Midlands chairman and controversially-appointed provincial governor, Jason Machaya abruptly summoned Zhou for a meeting in Gweru to answer various allegations made by residents.
Details of the plot emerged as President Robert Mugabe’s desperate party launched attacks on senior members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s majority party ahead of national elections which, according to opinion polls, Zanu (PF) will lose dismally. The meeting at the Governor’s office was attended by Machaya, Zhou, the acting Zvishavane town secretary and Zvishavane Residents andRatepayers Association, Peter Mudzviti, who is a senior local Zanu (PF) official. Efforts to get comment from both Zhou and Machaya are ongoing.
However, working undercover, this reporter was able to extract details of the plan from the various actors involved.
Thinking he was speaking to a journalist from the pliant, Zanu (PF)-controlled public media, Mudzviti spilled the beans. He
unwittingly took this reporter to one of the architects of the plan, Taxon Hogwe, who is the town’s former chairman and close confidante of local Zanu MP Obert Matshalaga. Mudzviti also disclosed that the plan to destroy the MDC-T council was drafted by senior officials in the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, where the Minister, Ignatious Chombo has launched massive attacks against MDC-T-controlled municipalities countrywide.
“These officials wanted Zhou arrested but there was no complainant. The District Administrator said he could not be the complainant, so the Residents association was asked to be the complainant and I agreed,” Mudzviti said. He also confirmed that the plot was part of Zanu (PF)’s election strategy and his own personal plans to become MP in this bustling, mineral-rich boomtown buoyed by rich finds of platinum, diamonds and gold.
“This is a bomb. After we bring down the MDC council, the people in Zanu (PF) will vote for me to stand as MP instead of Obert Matshalaga. It will be a walkover against the MDC,” Mudzviti said. MDC councillors interviewed said the attacks on the town chairman were a vain attempt to intimidate them. As of February, Chombo had fired 11 MDC councillors around Zimbabwe. Zanu (PF) has also won over the former MDC mayors of Victoria Falls, Kariba and Chitungwiza through a mixture bribes and threats.
Post published in: News