Zanu-PF targets 80% vote

Zanu-PF is targeting 80 percent of the vote during the August 23 harmonised elections to deal the country's detractors and their regime change puppets a lethal blow, the party's Vice President and Second Secretary Kembo Mohadi said yesterday.

Mohadi was addressing a Zanu-PF rally at Mutsago Primary School in Mutare West Constituency when he said the party will win by a huge margin that will leave the opposition without even the option of approaching the courts.

The opposition lost the 2018 elections and approached the courts, alleging vote rigging, but lost for lack of evidence.

The Mutare West rally was also attended by supporters from the nearby Mutare North and Mutare South constituencies.

Zanu-PF will be represented by Nyasha Marange (Mutare West), Admire Mahachi (Mutare North) and Dunmore Dumbarimwe (Mutare South).

The rally was the fourth by the presidency following two visits by President Mnangagwa and one by Vice-President, Dr Constantino Chiwenga, last week.

Mohadi implored party members to go out in their numbers to overwhelmingly vote for Zanu-PF, and give it a landslide victory to silence its foreign detractors and their local puppets.

Mohadi said Manicaland has a rich revolutionary history dating back to the days of the liberation struggle when the province was the main transit corridor for gallant sons and daughters who skipped the country for military training in Mozambique.

"I am a member of the Presidency, and I have come to ask for you to vote for Zanu-PF. We know your expectations, our campaign for this year is anchored on the achievements by the infrastructure developments done by the Second Republic.

"President Mnangagwa wants a resounding victory. We need an overwhelming victory. We need to silence our detractors and their puppets so that they won't even go to the courts.

"We don't want to repeat what happened in 2018 when our President won by 50.8 percent and was challenged in court. This year, we want 80 percent of the votes. You have seen the developments we are doing and we need a second mandate from you to finish what we have started," said Mohadi.

"The first thing we did when he got into office in 2018 was to analyse the national threat. We realised that it was food security and climate change because the unreliable rains were ruining harvests.

"We took the first step to ensure food self-sufficiency, and to achieve this, we constructed dams in each province, and established irrigation for local communities.

"In Manicaland, you have Muchekeranwa and Marowanyati dams, in Masvingo, they have Tugwi-Mukosi, Matebeleland North we are building one of the biggest dams, Gwayi-Shangani.

"Over the last three years, Zimbabwe has not imported food. We are the third country in Africa to be wheat self-sufficient," he said.

Roads across the country were being rehabilitated under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).

"Without roads there is no development. We are also expanding the airports, we are doing it step by step. We are requesting you to give us another five-year mandate to finish what we have started. We need a second mandate from you," he said.

Government is drilling 35 000 solarised boreholes to ensure each villages has a borehole for clean water and village business units horticulture, fisheries, poultry, small livestock farming and dip tanks.

He said corrective measures were being taken against economic saboteurs manipulating the exchange rate and prices of basic commodities.

He said Zimbabwe was the only county that has taken its land from whites and gave it to the indigenous people.

He warned Zanu-PF candidates to be humble when soliciting for votes and when elected to office.

"Let me warn you that the electorate are your masters. Do not boss yourself around these voters because they are the ones that vote you in or out. You must always  visit constituencies listening to their issues and expectations.

"Do not be cellphone politicians. Be among the people and learn from them. They know a lot of things which you don't know. You cannot lead people you don't love. These are the four virtues of leadership, love, live with the people, listen and learn from the people. Cascade development to the grassroots," said Mohadi.