by Grace Chekai
As the preparations for by-elections set for 5 December, this year gathered momentum, the battle to succeed the late National Patriotic Front (NPF) Member of Parliament for Kwekwe Central constituency, Masango Matambanadzo deepened following the refusal by his wife Selina Ndanga to succeed him, Harare Post has learnt.
Matambanadzo died on 28 July 2020.
A contact who spoke to this publication revealed that NPF had nominated Ndanga to take over from her late husband, but she refused saying that she is still mourning and needed time to get over it.
The contact revealed that the refusal by Ndanga to replace Matambanadzo has ignited a race, on who should succeed him.
The contact further revealed the names of those candidates who have submitted their names to replace Matambanadzo.
“There is now a race on who is going to take over from where Matambanadzo left. So far the Kwekwe losing candidate of NPF Tongai Chinhava, Tafadzwa Ziso and Musiiwa Muronza have submitted their names to the party for consideration.
“However, within the party there are squabbles going on which has fingered the interim NPF leader, Sandi Moyo for poisoning Matambanadzo, which later led to his death,” revealed the contact.
Contact said Moyo was supposed to come to Kwekwe to assess the preparations for the by-elections preparations, but failed to undertake the journey, fearing for her life following the accusations.
According to contact, Moyo has, however denied the allegations saying that she had a good working relationship with the late Matambanadzo and she never did anything to harm him.
Meanwhile, the MDC-Alliance Mbizo legislator, Settlement Chikwinya is alleged to have made overtures to NPF for the two parties to work together in the by-elections, so as to garner more votes.
The contact revealed that Settlement Chikwinya is aware of his shortcomings in Kwekwe and is quite sure that he cannot make it alone.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has scheduled by-elections for all vacant parliamentary and council seats for the 5th of December 2020, while the nomination court is set to sit on 9 October 2020.
