A popular Kwekwe bouncer known for his trait of carrying the late National Patriotic Front (NPF) legislator Masango Matambanadzo on his shoulders at political rallies, has been fingered amongst the Zanu PF youths who assaulted provincial ruling party officials presiding over the eventually abandoned chaotic primary elections in the Midlands mining town on Sunday.
Ugly scenes characterised the abandoned, drama-filled volatile Zanu PF primary elections in Kwekwe yesterday amid reports that senior provincial officials overseeing the polls were severely assaulted by irate youths who accused them of being biased in favour of the party’s 2018 candidate, Kandros Mugabe.
Mugabe, a miner-cum-cleric, was facing fellow miner Energy ‘Dhala’ Ncube in the prematurely aborted chaotic primaries seeking to come up with the sole candidate to represent Zanu PF in the forthcoming by-elections for Kwekwe Central constituency.
The Kwekwe Central seat fell vacant following the death of Matambanadzo in July after he had previously complained of food poisoning.
Matambanadzo, popularly known as Blackman, was notoriously known for addressing political rallies while perched on the shoulders of Mawire, his bodyguard.
And, according to reports reaching Zwnews, Mawire was allegedly amongst the Zanu PF youths aligned to Dhala who are said to have savagely assaulted the senior provincial leaders notably Midlands deputy chairperson and Shurugwi North MP Robson Nyathi, together with a one Colonel (Retired) Dr Kahuni who presided over the aborted polls.
It is also reported that Mawire was picked by Kwekwe police after having been fingered in the chaos that rocked the party’s district headquarters in the CBD which saw (Rtd) Col Dr Kahuni being temporarily hospitalised after he sustained a deep cut on one of his legs, following the attack.
The Dhala-aligned youths are also said to have deflated the tyres of Kahuni’s vehicle after accusing the presiding team of bias towards Mugabe.
This was after hordes of suspected illegal miners aligned to the youthful aspirant, who is also state security minister Owen Ncube’s nephew, had been turned away on grounds that their names did not appear in the Zanu PF 2018 voters’ roll that was being used.
The youths reportedly turned violent, and started assaulting their provincial leaders, who had to flee from the party offices, leading to a joint deployment of armed military and police officers to rein in the chaotic scenes.
The deployed state security forces who also fired gunshots as tempers boiled, are said to have indiscriminately beaten up the rebellious ruling party youths who were assaulting the Zanu PF provincial leaders conducting the aborted intra-party polls.
Several arrests, including that of the late Blackman’s bodyguard, Mawire, were allegedly made as the police and Zanu PF youths were engaged in running battles.
Questioned about the arrests, police spokesperson for the Midlands, Inspector Joel Goko said he was not in a position to comment on the matter.
Goko referred all questions to his boss and national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
But Nyathi last night told Zwnews that he was yet to be furnished with details on either the violence that rocked the aborted primaries or the alleged arrests in Kwekwe.
“I am yet to hear about that. In actual fact, I was not in office today (Sunday) and I may be in a position to comment on that when I get back to work tomorrow morning,” Asst Comm Nyathi said.
Earlier on Sunday, Zanu PF Midlands chairperson Engineer Daniel McKenzie Ncube told this publication that the violent scenes that typified the Kwekwe Central primaries resulted in their abandonment.
Efforts to get a comment from the ruling party’s national political commissar Victor Matemadanda were fruitless during the time of writing as his mobile was not reachable.
Zwnews
