Obert Mpofu offered to step down

ZANU-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu yesterday said he volunteered to relinquish his Senatorial position to pave way for Cain Mathema following his appointment as Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage.

In an interview on the sidelines of Zanu-PF victory celebrations at Simbo Primary School in Nkayi, Dr Mpofu said his resignation from the Senate was voluntary.

"We have to accept reality because when Mathema was appointed minister there was an oversight by the appointing authority because he (Mathema) was neither an MP nor a Senator. So when that error was noted that constitutionally he was not supposed to be minister, I was then requested as the most senior official in the province to choose someone in the province to relinquish his or her post to pave way for Mathema. I said no I am personally volunteering to do so because the other option was for Mathema to resign," he said.

Dr Mpofu said his action was out of goodwill and in the spirit of comradeship.

"As the most senior party official in the province, I saw it fit to allow one of our own to take up a ministerial post, which is why I decided to resign," he said.

Dr Mpofu commended President Mnangagwa for appointing a youthful and dynamic Cabinet, saying he was confident the team would deliver.

"This is a confidence-inspiring Cabinet and the President in his wisdom saw it fit to appoint a formidable team and we fully support it as a party. The new Cabinet should implement party resolutions and policies. The party will now be operating full-time. We were actually the only ones especially in the Sadc region who were not very clear as to the role of the ruling party in Government. You will find that in South Africa, Angola and Mozambique, the ruling parties run the government. Zanu-PF has now come on board and we are going to ensure that party resolutions and decisions and promises that we made during election campaign period are implemented in Government." Dr Mpofu said his role as Secretary for Administration in Zanu-PF is to ensure that party policies are implemented in all spheres of Government.

Meanwhile, while addressing Zanu-PF supporters during the celebrations, Dr Mpofu said President Mnangagwa would fulfil all his election promises.

"We have been sent by the President to thank you for voting for Zanu-PF and he pledged to fulfil all the promises. The roads linking Nkayi and Bulawayo will be rehabilitated and the water challenges will be addressed through the drilling of more boreholes and also thank you for voting for Stars Mathe and retaining Sithembiso Nyoni. Now it is time to work and I can assure you that Nkayi will be transformed because our President is a listening leader who is development and people oriented," he said.

Dr Mpofu also took the opportunity to congratulate Richard Moyo following his appointment as Minister of State for Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs.

"Moyo is a hard worker and loyal party cadre. I am glad the President noticed that and appointed him minister. I groomed him and I treat him as my son. Let us support him," he said.

Moyo pledged to spearhead development in the province.

"It is a great honour to be appointed minister and I will make sure I work with all Government agencies and stakeholders to speed up development in the province. Our roads are in a poor state and some projects have been lying idle for a long time and those are some of the issues that I will address during my tenure of office. I am glad you elected Mathe to be your MP and we'll work together to develop this constituency. For the past 17 years the opposition was running this constituency and there was no meaningful development. We now have a Zanu-PF MP and 23 councillors for Nkayi RDC out of 30 and that means more work for us as Zanu-PF."