3 Bulawayo MPs booted out of Zanu-PF primaries

THREE sitting Members of Parliament from Bulawayo have been disqualified from contesting in the Zanu-PF primary elections which will be held on Sunday.

Pumula representative in the National Assembly Godfrey Malaba was disqualified at the weekend by the national commissariat, while Luveve MP Ntandoyenkosi Mlilo and Nkulumane MP Killian Sibanda were disqualified yesterday.

Announcing the developments yesterday, the party's Bulawayo provincial chairman, Professor Callistus Ndlovu, said the three MPs are among eight candidates that were disqualified.

"The vetting was done at two levels. The first one was at provincial level while the second one was at national level. The decision to disqualify some of the candidates was done at a higher level.

"They looked at the list we supplied and took into account our comments and on the basis of other information they have, which we don't have ourselves, involving security issues and others, they decided to drop some people and their decision is final," said Prof Ndlovu.

He said in summary, the total number of aspiring House of Assembly candidates for the 12 constituencies in Bulawayo stands at 53 with a total of eight disqualified candidates.

"The candidates understand that the final decision is made at national level. The reasons were not given to us because they involve political security issues. I'm sure you realise that Zanu-PF had problems, some of which were related to the G40 cabal.

"That could be one of the reasons but the national commissariat didn't mention that. Incumbent MPs are actually more exposed than aspiring MPs because people know what they did wrong. It could be political or incompetence," said Prof Ndlovu.

He said the list of candidates that was published in the latest edition of our sister paper, The Sunday News, had errors which have since been rectified.

"Pursuant to the approved and published list of our primary election candidates, all aspiring House of Assembly candidates who had been erroneously put under the Senatorial constituencies have now been put back into their intended constituencies.

"For Bulawayo Central and Bulawayo East, the number of contesting candidates has increased to five and 10 respectively," said Prof Ndlovu.

As a result of the amendments, Joshua Malinga of Kumalo Senatorial constituency and Prof Ndlovu of Mzilikazi Senatorial constituency are uncontested.

Prof Ndlovu added that Sibanda's disqualification leaves David Ndlovu as the only candidate for the Nkulumane House of Assembly constituency.

"The omission of the entire list for the Luveve House of Assembly candidates has been rectified. Mandla Ndlovu has also been included on the list of aspiring candidates for Magwegwe constituency.

"A total of seven aspiring candidates were approved for the women's quota. The only contest will be between two candidates in Bulawayo East and Bulawayo Central constituencies," said Prof Ndlovu.

All candidates, he added, who applied to contest in the local authority elections have been approved except for Mangwani Kudiwa from Nketa-Emganwini, who has been disqualified.

The candidates have been given the green light to start campaigning for the primaries, with those contesting for the same constituency expected to campaign together.