'I will only listen to Kasukuwere'

Despite the hullabaloo surrounding Harare East by-election candidate Terence Mukupe's open defiance of the directive by Zanu-PF bigwigs that he makes way for another candidate in the June 10 poll, as well as his controversial decision to take the party to the courts over the matter; the Harare businessman is digging in resolutely.

The audacious Mukupe vowed that he would not give up his right to contest the seat that became vacant when 14 MDC legislators were booted out of Parliament by their party last month.

Instead, Mukupe challenged his rival, Mavis Gumbo - who apparently enjoys the support of President Robert Mugabe, his influential wife Grace, VP Emmerson Mnangagwa and party secretary for administration Ignatious Chombo, among others- to step aside as he had beaten her cleanly in the party's primary election.