People have always loved ZAPU:Ncube

Tecla Ndlovu

Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) councillor for  Ward 17 in Matobo-Mangwe Constituency, Mpendulo Ncube has attributed winning the recent elections to the people’s love for the revolutionary party in the area.

Ncube was the only ZAPU candidate to win in the recent elections which were largely dominated by Zanu PF and the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

Speaking to Community Podium, Ncube said his Constituency has always supported ZAPU, but was afraid to vote for the party due to fear instilled during the Gukurahundi era.

“I discovered  during our campaigns  that people have always loved ZAPU. They told us that the Gukurahundi period  affected them massively. They became afraid to support our party as doing so would have put them in harm’s way,” said Ncube. 

“However, this time around people became bolder and voted for a party of their choice. Gradually, people are becoming free to express themselves without fear, ” added Ncube.

Cllr Ncube’s plan is to listen to the community he serves and work towards addressing their grievances.

“The people highlighted water challenges because we are in an area under semi-desert conditions which have affected livestock. In our Ndebele culture livestock equates to one’s wealth. If we build more dams our livestock will flourish,” said Ncube.

He added that  boreholes were no longer effective as most homes are manned by the elderly who lack the physical strength to use the boreholes.

“People need solar systems and taps in to easily access water. Most youths went to South Africa and the elderly are the ones in our homesteads and they have no capacity to pump water from those boreholes as it requires a lot of labour,” said Cllr Ncube.

Cllr Ncube also plans to improve access to education for the young people in his ward.

“The schools here are very far. Land has been earmarked for schools but no meaningful building of schools is taking place. Villagers have tried  building schools but they can’t complete those schools as they can’t raise adequate funds. That is something we are looking into by assisting communities to find sponsors,” he said.

According to cllr Ncube, the plan is to produce a budget, find sponsors and implement one project at a time.

“Firstly we need to work on our  budget plan and then we look for anyone who can sponsor us. Then we can  begin working on one of the projects. We will just do one project at a time until we finish all of them, ” said Ncube.