PICTURE: Mnangagwa’s text messages strike fear to rural voters

MASVINGO: Thousands of rural dwellers in the province are worried after they received text messages asking them to vote for President Emmerson Mnangagwa as well as respective Zanu PF parliamentary candidates.

The message, that were received beginning on Monday and are reportedly coming from Mnangagwa himself, has struck fear in many villagers who think the President and his ruling Zanu PF party knows everything about them.

Even some aspiring Zanu PF MPs from Masvingo who declined to named for fear of victimisation said they were equally worried with the latest development.

The aspiring MPs said they were busy doing some fire-fighting since their mobile numbers were also made public ‘by someone up there’ without their consent.

Members of the public who once surrendered their voter slip serial numbers to Zanu PF during the voter registration period said they were worried with Zanu PF’s manoeuvres since they do not know the amount of their personal data stored at Zanu PF offices.

“My mother in Masvingo rural phoned me informing me about that development. She was extremely worried and she wanted assurance from me that Zanu PF did not have mechanisms to see who she will vote for,” said another informant who spoke to this publication.

Another resident from Mashava, Davison Mugodzwa said Zanu PF was fooling itself thinking that people still likes it.

“We don’t want such messages in our phones, they (Zanu PF) stole our data and they are now using it against us. That will not even change my thinking but it will instead consolidate my belief that Zanu PF is full of thieves,” said Mugodzwa. tell zim