News / National
Thokozani Khupe withdrawn from contesting Mthuli Ncube
06 Jun 2023 at 14:04hrs | Views
In a new twist to what was promising to be a Battle Royale in the 23 August harmonised general election - between the much adored Dr Thokozani Khupe and the odds-on favourite Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube - for the honour to represent Bulawayo's Cowdray Park constituency in the National Assembly, Dr Khupe has been withdrawn and put on the top of CCC's Bulawayo metropolitan province's Senate proportional representation party-list, on which Prof Welshman Ncube is number two after her.
While the new twist is on the back of what has manifestly become an indefinitely prolonged, opaque, dysfunctional and centrally manipulable CCC "candidate selection" process underwritten by intrigue and uncertainty, Dr Khupe, who has not been seen in public doing active politics for some time, is in fact not feeling her best; and good sense appears to be finally dawning on all and sundry that it would be just too much and even cruel to have her slug it out in what is most definitely going to be a gruelling election contest.
Makhupe is not well, and this is not a secret to those close to her. That's why right from the start, the understanding and her expectation was that she would be on a party-list for either the women's quota or the Senate. But overzealous yet cowardly self-appointed CCC apparatchiks afraid of taking on Prof Mthuli Ncube then conspired to come up with Machiavellian claims that Dr Khupe was the only one in CCC who could "defeat" Prof Ncube in Cowdray Park.
Meanwhile - as captured in the attached audio - a hurriedly convened and chaotically organised CCC "candidate selection caucus" for Cowdray Park run by a nervous team from Harare, had already "selected" Dr Khupe in her absence as the party's National Assembly candidate for the constituency.
Out of a paltry 342 "voting" CCC activists – some of them who were not registered as voters – Dr Khupe was "selected" by just 222 in a constituency that had 24, 403 registered voters as of 30 May 2022, when the delimitation voters roll was closed.
It is no wonder that – despite having touted its murky "community selection caucuses" some three months ago as an "innovative and democratic" candidate selection process in which communities would have the last word on the choice of their local authority and parliamentary representatives under the CCC banner, the latest CCC propaganda is that in fact, none of the community processes has the last say.
This has left little if any doubt that the final word is with Advocate Nelson Chamisa who said last year that he would personally approve each and every nomination form for CCC local authority and parliamentary election candidates in the 2023 election who number some 2,440.
Interestingly, Cowdray Park is a new peri-urban constituency in Bulawayo with three big wards: 6, 15 and 28 which are essentially ruralised.
Since 30 May 2022, and especially after Prof Ncube's candidature was confirmed, the constituency has registered very high numbers of new voters up 2 June 2023, when the voters registration was closed to enable ZEC to prepare the final voters roll for the harmonised general election on 23 August 2023!
While the new twist is on the back of what has manifestly become an indefinitely prolonged, opaque, dysfunctional and centrally manipulable CCC "candidate selection" process underwritten by intrigue and uncertainty, Dr Khupe, who has not been seen in public doing active politics for some time, is in fact not feeling her best; and good sense appears to be finally dawning on all and sundry that it would be just too much and even cruel to have her slug it out in what is most definitely going to be a gruelling election contest.
Makhupe is not well, and this is not a secret to those close to her. That's why right from the start, the understanding and her expectation was that she would be on a party-list for either the women's quota or the Senate. But overzealous yet cowardly self-appointed CCC apparatchiks afraid of taking on Prof Mthuli Ncube then conspired to come up with Machiavellian claims that Dr Khupe was the only one in CCC who could "defeat" Prof Ncube in Cowdray Park.
#ZimElection2023
— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) June 6, 2023
DR THOKOZANI KHUPE WITHDRAWN FROM CONTESTING PROF MTHULI NCUBE IN COWDRAY PARK AND REDEPLOYED TO TOP CCC SENATE PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION PARTYLIST
In a new twist to what was promising to be a Battle Royale in the 23 August harmonised general election –… pic.twitter.com/oib08DvZq2
Meanwhile - as captured in the attached audio - a hurriedly convened and chaotically organised CCC "candidate selection caucus" for Cowdray Park run by a nervous team from Harare, had already "selected" Dr Khupe in her absence as the party's National Assembly candidate for the constituency.
Out of a paltry 342 "voting" CCC activists – some of them who were not registered as voters – Dr Khupe was "selected" by just 222 in a constituency that had 24, 403 registered voters as of 30 May 2022, when the delimitation voters roll was closed.
It is no wonder that – despite having touted its murky "community selection caucuses" some three months ago as an "innovative and democratic" candidate selection process in which communities would have the last word on the choice of their local authority and parliamentary representatives under the CCC banner, the latest CCC propaganda is that in fact, none of the community processes has the last say.
This has left little if any doubt that the final word is with Advocate Nelson Chamisa who said last year that he would personally approve each and every nomination form for CCC local authority and parliamentary election candidates in the 2023 election who number some 2,440.
Interestingly, Cowdray Park is a new peri-urban constituency in Bulawayo with three big wards: 6, 15 and 28 which are essentially ruralised.
Since 30 May 2022, and especially after Prof Ncube's candidature was confirmed, the constituency has registered very high numbers of new voters up 2 June 2023, when the voters registration was closed to enable ZEC to prepare the final voters roll for the harmonised general election on 23 August 2023!
Source - jonathan moyo
