Some Zanu-PF members in Bulawayo South Constituency have accused the party of imposing former Member of Parliament Raj Modi to stand as the candidate in the upcoming by-election set for December 9, 2023.
The members, who spoke to CITE on condition of anonymity, said the party held the nomination process in a haphazard manner and in violation of the party constitution.
The constituency seat became vacant together with 14 others following the recall of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislators by self-proclaimed Secretary General Sengezo Tshabangu.
Modi lost the seat to CCC’s Nicola Watson in the August election.
The sources said a nomination process was held to determine the candidates who would battle it out in the party primaries to come up with candidates to represent the party in the by-election.
They claimed that Modi had become unpopular with members of his constituency owing to a series of broken promises. They also accused party officials of disqualifying other prospective candidates to pave way for Modi.
CITE has videos showing chaotic scenes during the nomination process.
“The nomination process was flawed,” one of the sources said. “Modi bused people from outside the constituency to come and attend the nomination process. The delegation that was in charge of the process refused to accept the nomination papers of another candidate, Archibald Siziba. The mini nomination process that was held was highly unconstitutional as per the provisions of the party laws.
“This is not the first time the party chairperson has imposed Modi. During the general election they lied to us that the party had endorsed him (Modi) as the candidate for the constituency. We discovered it after the elections. Right now they want to repeat the same thing. There was supposed to be two candidates but they refused to accept the other candidate’s (Siziba) papers.”
The sources said the nomination process was announced on Monday in the evening, stating that the nomination process would be held on Tuesday at 10AM.
“There was less than 12 hours to prepare for the meeting,” another source said. “It was midweek, people have other commitments and cannot just change their plans. They deliberately did this to sideline the other candidate (Siziba). Modi buses in people to the meeting, from outside our constituency. They only nominated Modi and refused to proceed with nominations for the other candidate.”
The sources said the party constitution is very clear on who can run for various offices. Siziba rightfully meets the criteria to run for MP office. He submitted his CV and made the necessary payments, but the delegation that was responsible for this particular process simply did not acknowledge him.
The sources alleged that Siziba was on several occasions threatened to pull out from the race after he had submitted his papers showing interest to run for the office.
“He was even threatened prior to this meeting,” one of the sources said. “After he had submitted his CV to show his interest to run, he was threatened several times being told to withdraw from the race but he refused to backdown, so now they don’t want him to proceed to the primaries because they know he will outrun Modi.
“People in the constituency do not want Modi anymore. He promises people donations yet he never delivers. When it’s time to come back to the people for votes he throws money around to get his desired results. We are tired of that and we need a different candidate. This is why the party lost the seat in the past election but now he wants to run again.”
Bulawayo spokesperson of Zanu-PF, Archibald Chiponda, dismissed the allegations.
“I think you’ve been grossly misinformed by a disgruntled losing candidate,” Chiponda said. “Zanu-PF is an extremely democratic party, hence we even hold Constituency Consultation meetings before primaries to actually get the voice and opinion of the people. If we had any intention of imposing anyone anywhere why would be bother going through all those processes?”
