Zanu-PF maintains dominance in Matebeleland South

Zanu-PF has maintained its dominance in Matabeleland South province where Government is implementing a lot of development and economic empowerment programmes to improve people's standards of living, an official has said.

Zanu-PF Matabeleland South chairman Rabelani Choeni said although they had lost one parliamentary seat (Gwanda Central) out of 13 constituencies, the majority of people had shown confidence in the party under the able leadership of President Mnangagwa.

There were a total of 99 candidates in the race for National Assembly seats while 500 battled for local government elections in Matabeleland South. In 2013, Zanu-PF had a clean sweep in the province.

"Although there were many political parties, which had fielded candidates for National Assembly and local government seats, we managed to collect everything except in Gwanda Central," he said.

"This is a show of confidence in our party and its leadership led by President Mnangagwa. We will continue with our dominance and fulfilling the pre elections promise made by our party in line with our 2018 election manifesto.

"People should look forward to accelerate infrastructure development in areas around the provision of more schools, clinics, roads, communication facilities and irrigation development.

"At the same time, I want to urge people to embrace programmes, including command livestock, mining, and small to medium enterprises, women and youth empowerment initiatives among others".

Choeni said the party went into Monday's elections with some its candidates for local government elections unopposed in Beitbridge East and Matobo South constituencies.

In addition, the MDC-Alliance failed to field a parliamentary candidate in Insiza North. He said the party assembled strong campaign teams in the pre-elections period to ensure that they collected the maximum votes on offer.

"Everyone in the party including those from cell up to provincial level were working very hard to ensure a continued dominance by the party in Mat South," he said.

He said party supporters had also voted in their numbers to cement their relationship with Zanu-PF. He said the party was very organised starting from grassroots level and had a strong following because its leadership have people's interest at heart.