News / National
MDC-T losing support in towns
19 Aug 2015 at 07:32hrs | Views
MDC-T's days are numbered in urban areas with more people joining Zanu-PF in the ongoing party restructuring exercise, a senior ruling party official said yesterday.
Party national secretary for youth affairs Pupurai Togarepi, who is heading the restructuring exercise in Bulawayo, said more people are joining Zanu-PF in the city, previously viewed as the opposition stronghold.
He said the party was confident of a resounding victory in the 2018 elections judging from the positive feedback from the community.
A meeting was held in Bulawayo on Saturday to set up teams for the restructuring exercise including incorporated members from other provinces to conduct the process.
"We're getting a good response from the people, yes we've had a few teething problems because we're dealing with an urban set-up and at times the people will be at work but we've put out notices of meeting dates and places," said Togarepi.
"We're getting many new members joining the structures, like I said before the party has many supporters who were outside the structures."
Togarepi said the teams set up on Saturday will work together in the restructuring exercise adding, "all the teams will work together and will visit one area at a time.
"We want to do a thorough job so the process will take plus or minus three months," he said.
Bulawayo last month came under fire from party secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo who accused the province of presenting to the party doctored figures of members that don't tally with structures.
He rapped the party's provincial structure for providing fictitious and shambolic membership records, which he said affect strategy formulation and projecting election results.
Addressing a workshop for the secretaries of administration in the main, women and youth wings at a Bulawayo hotel, Chombo singled out Bulawayo as the major culprit for inflating the number of party structures, purporting to have 115 districts yet numbers in recent elections only tallied in five districts.
He said it has become a culture that provinces inflate the number of party districts to have superiority over others with regards to allocation of leadership positions and perceived party strength.
Zanu-PF won all contested five constituencies in Bulawayo during the June 10 by-elections ending MDC-T's dominance in the city.
Party national secretary for youth affairs Pupurai Togarepi, who is heading the restructuring exercise in Bulawayo, said more people are joining Zanu-PF in the city, previously viewed as the opposition stronghold.
He said the party was confident of a resounding victory in the 2018 elections judging from the positive feedback from the community.
A meeting was held in Bulawayo on Saturday to set up teams for the restructuring exercise including incorporated members from other provinces to conduct the process.
"We're getting a good response from the people, yes we've had a few teething problems because we're dealing with an urban set-up and at times the people will be at work but we've put out notices of meeting dates and places," said Togarepi.
"We're getting many new members joining the structures, like I said before the party has many supporters who were outside the structures."
"We want to do a thorough job so the process will take plus or minus three months," he said.
Bulawayo last month came under fire from party secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo who accused the province of presenting to the party doctored figures of members that don't tally with structures.
He rapped the party's provincial structure for providing fictitious and shambolic membership records, which he said affect strategy formulation and projecting election results.
Addressing a workshop for the secretaries of administration in the main, women and youth wings at a Bulawayo hotel, Chombo singled out Bulawayo as the major culprit for inflating the number of party structures, purporting to have 115 districts yet numbers in recent elections only tallied in five districts.
He said it has become a culture that provinces inflate the number of party districts to have superiority over others with regards to allocation of leadership positions and perceived party strength.
Zanu-PF won all contested five constituencies in Bulawayo during the June 10 by-elections ending MDC-T's dominance in the city.
Source - the herald
