ASPIRING Zanu PF Chegutu West parliamentary candidate in the upcoming February 3 by-election predicts a resounding victory taking advantage of the chaos in the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) camp.
Shakemore Wellington Timburwa (32) surprisingly won the right to represent the ruling party after former Member of Parliament (MP) Dexter Nduna was disqualified while Farai Last Chigavazira, who stood in the August 2023 harmonised elections and lost, withdrew his candidature.
Following a meeting held Saturday in Chegutu to assess the level of election preparedness chaired by national political commissar Mike Bimha, Timburwa told the media Zanu PF will reclaim the seat owing to internecine fights in opposition political parties, particularly CCC led by Nelson Chamisa.
“Preparedness determines success and if you are not prepared for the election, that gives us an advantage as an organised party. Zanu PF is strategically planned and has structures. We are dealing with confused people, and as a party, we will maximise on that confusion,” Timburwa said
Former CCC MP Admore Chivero is standing as an independent candidate after CCC interim secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu threatened to recall him again if he contests and wins on the ticket of the opposition party, which he “ceased to be a member.”
Gift Konjana, a serial flip-flopper previously with MDC-T aligned to Douglas Mwonzora, successfully filed nomination papers representing CCC with Tshabangu’s blessing.
“So we want to make sure as Zanu PF we maximize on the confusion. We don’t waste a crisis, we maximize and win.”
Timburwa said the electorate votes for tried-and-tested leadership that brings solutions to existing and future challenges.
“As the ruling party, we are going to win resoundingly in this constituency simply because of the pragmatic approach we use in our campaign. We are not going to people with political rhetoric whereby we promise what we don’t deliver.
“Where there are water problems, we are bringing rigs to drill boreholes. So far we have done 10 boreholes and more are still coming,” he said.
Timburwa noted that some of the solutions include creating employment for multitudes of youths in the constituency battling a high unemployment rate.
“Some of the solutions that we are providing such as drilling boreholes are creating jobs for young people and we have been consuming from the high volumes of unemployment in Chegutu West,” he added.
Still on job creation, Timburwa, founder and director of a diversified portfolio of companies, said he will assist youths tap into the lucrative small-scale mining sector by financing gold syndicates.
