Mashonaland East
The political environment in Mashonaland East remains unsettled in the Zanu PF camp as the
provincial committees continue to be suspended one after the other. The acting Minister of State
Biggie Matiza announced the suspension of the Aeneas Chigwedere led Committee. This was
followed by a demonstration led by war veterans against Matiza for prematurely announcing the
suspension of the committee. Cases of harassment and intimidation were reported as people were
forced to attend Zanu PF meetings in Marondera West, Murehwa West and Mudzi West.
Hwedza North by-elections were held on 15 May 2015 resulting in 9021 votes for the Zanu PF
candidate David Musabayana while the other two candidates polled 450 votes collectively. The
results put the Zanu PF leaders in charge of elections in panic mode as 28000 people are registered
to vote in the constituency. The Councillor of Ward 15 Kingstone Mangure, and two other Zanu PF
activists identified as Zinyoro and Lydia Ushe were in charge of the Zanu PF campaign so they were
ordered by leaders in Harare to gather people to enquire about voter apathy. Masiyiwa Chiwenga a
Zanu PF youth in charge of inviting people literally went door to door begging people to attend the
meeting to clear his name of incompetence. He indicated that people would be clearing their names
by attending the meeting. The meeting was addressed by Minister Matiza.
Bulawayo
Intra party conflict within Zanu PF escalated with various party members accusing and counter
accusing each other of belonging to wrong camps. Those aligned to ousted former provincial party
chairperson Dr Callistus Ndlovu were sidelined from contesting the by-elections as they were
accused of being in the Mujuru camp.
On 20 May in Ward 19 of Pumula a group of Zanu PF youths campaigning for their party forced a
young man in the area who declared not belonging to any political party to march with them
chanting their slogans and to declare support for the Zanu PF candidate. The victim was traumatized
by the experience and has since fled to his grandmother’s place in Matsheumhlope.
Harare
The operating environment varied from being very calm in areas where there were no by-elections
to extremely volatile where elections were anticipated. Mbare, Budiriro, Mt Pleasant, Chitungwiza
South and Southerton were peaceful and had no political activities of note. In Glen View South a
Zanu PF meeting was held on 9 May 2015 although the turnout was very poor. This angered the
Zanu PF supporters who went about tearing posters of other candidates such as of Moses Nkomo of
Transform Zimbabwe, Michael Chivandire of Pro Democracy and independent candidate Donald
Chimatira. Chimatira faced the worst violations as truckloads of people were brought to his house to
harass him shouting obscenities on the 16th of May 2015. In Harare East Zanu PF supporters were
torn between two candidates, Terence Mukupe and Mavis Gumbo. There was a standoff between
Gumbo and Mukupe when they met at the nomination court although Gumbo had lost in the
primary elections. Although the party eventually agreed on Mukupe as the recognised Zanu PF
candidate there were accusations and counter accusations within the party as members demanded
to know who was propping the candidate who had lost the primary elections. On 25 May a youth
who was putting up Mukupe posters was told to remove them by Gumbo’s supporters in Msasa
along Mutare Road among some of the violations noted in the constituency. Kambuzuma had
peaceful campaigns. The last Zanu PF campaign for Tinashe Maduza took place on 10 May 2015 at
Joshua Mqabuko residential area. It was peaceful. On 11 May the other 11 candidates moved in the
streets, some going door to door campaigning for support in the by-elections. This was done
peacefully although such campaigns are prone to harassing and intimidating residents. Meanwhile
the MDC-T party had meetings in Kambuzuma every Thursday telling their supporters not to
participate in the elections.
7