Victoria Falls mayor defects to Zanu-PF

UMGUZA Member of the House of Assembly Dr Obert Mpofu who is conducting whirlwind rallies in Matabeleland North where he seeks to assist Zanu-PF colleagues win the hearts of the people in order to reclaim seats taken by the MDC-T during the previous  elections was yesterday at Sizinda Village in Hwange.

Speaking during the meeting Dr Mpofu said all the rallies he has held outside his constituency including the ones he intends to hold were not a platform to catapult his relatives to positions of influence on the political front but efforts to strengthen the party's position in the region.

Before addressing the rally Dr Mpofu attended the ordination of three Roman Catholic priests by Bishop Alexander Serrano at the Ignatius Cathedral in Hwange urban.

The rally also witnessed the defection of four senior Movement for Democratic Change officials including the mayor of the Victoria Falls municipality, Councillor Nkosilathi Jiyane to  Zanu-PF.

Clr Jiyane denounced MDC-T last year but made his first public announcement on his decision to leave the opposition party for the revolutionary party yesterday.

"It has to be noted that I am not campaigning for my family members or relatives but for the party. Some of the opposition members you voted for are my relatives but of course I won't be swayed to vote for them", said Dr Mpofu.

The veteran politician who was born and bred in Chidobe, a stone's throw from where the rally was held urged his fellow clansman to vote for people that exhibit true leadership qualities and the zeal to improve their livelihoods.

"I have come here as your son to find out what makes my people to be impoverished. The roads are in a very bad state. There is no access to clean water as the boreholes are far away from homesteads, in fact most of them were drilled during the colonial era. The schools are few and farming seems to be  a mammoth task because of a myriad of challenges. It is against this background that I urge you to vote for people that will strive to improve your livelihoods which is of course a necessity," Dr Mpofu said.

Announcing his defection from MDC-T the Victoria Falls mayor, Clr Jiyane, who is also a board member of the Hwange Colliery Company Limited paid tribute to Dr Mpofu for playing a pivotal role towards improving his status despite his alliance with the opposition party.

"To tell you the truth, I always felt belittled by senior MDC-T officials that visited the Victoria Falls as they didn't recognise my presence thus the reason I left and retraced my footsteps to my roots which is Zanu-PF and with Zanu-PF you will never go wrong because it is a party with a vision and focused towards improving the livelihoods of the people of Zimbabwe," he said.

At a separate meeting with Zanu-PF structures at Lwendulu hall in Hwange  recently, Dr Mpofu said he was prepared to fight until the end to ensure that the party retains control of the province.

He said people from the province had since realised that the MDC-T did not have their interests at heart thus the need for Zanu PF to re-attract them back to their party of origin.

"I am coming to Matabeleland North and I am fighting till the end, this is a vow that I am taking seriously even the MDC-T leadership know that I am serious, come election time I am certainly taking over. One reason I am very confident that I will achieve this is because I am talking to the people and listening to them, the reason we lost people to the MDC-T is because of us the leadership, so if we fix things within us I assure you that these people will come back to us," said Dr Mpofu.

He called on the party's leadership to desist from fighting among each other as this was destroying Zanu PF at the end of the day and further chasing away supporters.