Hwange central candidates on removal of rural wards

Rutendo Mapfumo

In the recent delimitation process, three of Hwange Central Constituency’s rural wards were moved to Hwange East Constituency following the growth of population in the constituency.

The affected rural wards are Nekabandama ward 12, Dinde Nekatambe ward 13 and Lukosi ward 20.
“Hwange Central constituency has been dramatically affected by delimitation. It is now smaller than it was in 2018.
Those councillors and wards are now under Hwange East.They, however, continue to fall under Hwange Rural District,” said Hwange Central legislator, Daniel Molokele.

Hwange Central is now smaller, with 15 wards remaining but Molokele sees an opportunity in the urbanization of his constituency.
“I have no qualms with the delimitation process for Hwange Central Constituency. I may actually benefit as a person from the reduction of the geographical size of my constituency. All my three rural wards are no longer there making my constituency purely an urban one” he said.
Molokele claimed that since his constituency is now smaller, it is easier to manage because he was alternating in allocating Constituency Development Funds projects.

“During the last 5 years, we have been alternating annually between the rural and urban wards in terms of the allocation of our CDF projects, so from next year onwards, it will only be urban wards,” he said.
Molokele indicated that this year may be his second term and hinted that it could be his last term in office.
“I am available for election for the second and hopefully my last term. However there are a lot of initiatives I started during my first term and most were affected by the three years of lockdowns, so I will need to review each of them first and then identify those that l will seek to revive,” he said.

A villager from ward 20, Melrose Shoko appreciated the efforts made by Molokele when Hwange central constituency included the rural wards.

“The MP came here and drilled some boreholes in Gamba village, we had a serious challenge of access to water, “she said.
Molokele became the Member of Parliament(MP) for Hwange Central Constituency with the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) ticket in 2018 taking over from the then MDC T former MP Brian Tshuma.
“As we are having our candidates selection process meetings on Wednesday in all wards across the constituency I will be available for the nomination” said MolokeIe.

The opposition movement has anchored a selection process on the grassroots to give ordinary citizens the authority to select representatives of their choice. Molokele will be challenged by Cosmos Kaboloma Ndlovu who is also eying for Hwange Central Constituency seat .
The process will be presided over by members of an Independent Candidate Selection Panel (ICSP). Nominees will be given the opportunity to either accept or decline.
Ndlovu who confirmed his interest said he is ready for this election.
“I can confirm my interest in this year’s election, I’m ready to challenge Daniel Molokele and ZANU PF as a whole,” confirmed Ndlovu..

ZANU PF’s Reeds Dube who won the party’s primaries and the ticket to represent the ruling party in the harmonised elections said the reduction of wards in Hwange Central Constituency and the removal of rural wards has an impact on developmental projects that he has been carrying out in the rural wards.
“We have pending projects of drilling boreholes in the rural wards in areas such as Champepo, Bhola and Chilanga,” he said.

Dube, who has been a shadow MP for the past three terms in Hwange Central Constituency says the loss of rural wards to Hwange East could negatively affect Zanu PF in terms of the number of votes. However, he believes his party has made inroads in the remaining urban wards.

“Since the constituency is entirely urban ,we will continue working closely with the residents of Hwange like before. I have a close working relationship with Hwange Colliery Company ex workers. I have been advocating for justice and making sure that they are not unceremoniously evicted from the houses,” Dube said.

A former Hwange Colliery Company worker confirmed that Dube has saved some of the former workers from eviction.
“Dube has stood with us. When the Colliery issued an eviction order of 7 days, Dube negotiated with the Hwange Colliery Company and pleaded for leniency, which saved us,” said Bernard Ncube a former Hwange Colliery Worker.
In the 2018 general elections, ward 12, 13 and 20 were all taken by councilors using the MDC Alliance ticket. The remaining wards in Hwange central were won by CCC councilors except for ward 7 which slipped to ZANU PF.