News / National
Free kombis for Budiriro, 'promotion' till elections
19 Jul 2018 at 15:25hrs | Views
ASPIRING Budiriro constituency Member of Parliament Godwin Gomwe, Zanu PF, said his decision to provide free transport into town for the area is not an attempt to buy votes.
On Monday Gomwe hired 60 kombis for the Budiriro 1, 2, 4 and 5 routes with his campaign team inspecting the operations and this promotion will run until July 30.
"We started this on Monday but we have decided that we do it on selected days. So we approached about 60 kombis that operate in Budiriro and paid them for the whole day on Monday.
"It was free transport for Budiriro residents that day. But after it emerged that there were cases were passengers, who were unaware, would be asked to pay we decided to have specific days for the promotion where we would have notified all people.
"So next week we will do it again, possibly Wednesday or more days which will be announced by our team," said Gomwe.
While there have been concerns that the move is tantamount to vote buying, Gomwe said it is his unique way of conducting rallies.
"I know that some will call it vote buying but that is not the case here. Since people will be busy with work, we cannot do rallies frequently and thought of an idea to meet them.
"So when they enter those kombis, they will get fliers with information of their candidate," he said.
On the first day of the promotion, some kombis were asking people who were not aware of the development to pay
"That behaviour forced us to do it on selected days so that we can monitor the operations. We don't want a situation whereby residents will be asked to pay MP wavo abhadhara kare.
"We have team that will monitor the kombis; it's open to all people of Budiriro. We just want them to know their MP," said Gomwe.
He said he is confident of winning the seat and will not regret the move.
"People of Budiriro have been voting people who failed to bring development. The MDC people have done nothing but through this initiative, they are now aware of the rightful to vote into parliament," he said.
On Monday Gomwe hired 60 kombis for the Budiriro 1, 2, 4 and 5 routes with his campaign team inspecting the operations and this promotion will run until July 30.
"We started this on Monday but we have decided that we do it on selected days. So we approached about 60 kombis that operate in Budiriro and paid them for the whole day on Monday.
"It was free transport for Budiriro residents that day. But after it emerged that there were cases were passengers, who were unaware, would be asked to pay we decided to have specific days for the promotion where we would have notified all people.
"So next week we will do it again, possibly Wednesday or more days which will be announced by our team," said Gomwe.
While there have been concerns that the move is tantamount to vote buying, Gomwe said it is his unique way of conducting rallies.
"I know that some will call it vote buying but that is not the case here. Since people will be busy with work, we cannot do rallies frequently and thought of an idea to meet them.
"So when they enter those kombis, they will get fliers with information of their candidate," he said.
On the first day of the promotion, some kombis were asking people who were not aware of the development to pay
"That behaviour forced us to do it on selected days so that we can monitor the operations. We don't want a situation whereby residents will be asked to pay MP wavo abhadhara kare.
"We have team that will monitor the kombis; it's open to all people of Budiriro. We just want them to know their MP," said Gomwe.
He said he is confident of winning the seat and will not regret the move.
"People of Budiriro have been voting people who failed to bring development. The MDC people have done nothing but through this initiative, they are now aware of the rightful to vote into parliament," he said.
Source - hmetro
