Chimombe, who is also Affirmative Action Group (AAG)
president, has reportedly turned into a terror campaign leader, terrorising
residents in Makonde and Chinhoyi.
Information deputy minister Kindness Paradza recently wrote
to the party’s national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri asking her to
intervene and rein in Chimombe.
In a letter to Zanu PF chairperson and Defence minister
Oppah Muchinguri dated May 10, 2021, Paradza, who is also Makonde MP and Zanu
PF district co-ordinating committee (DCC) chairperson, alleged that Chimombe and
his rogue group had rendered some
districts ungovernable.
“Chimombe is now behaving like a warlord in Makonde, in
particular Chinhoyi constituency, where he has divided the party by sponsoring
a gang of hooligans whose actions and behaviour are working against the party
and our leader, His Excellency the President, Cde ED Mnangagwa.
“Cde chairman, if no action is taken against Mike Chimombe
now, as your DCC chairman, I will be forced to abandon Chinhoyi and concentrate
on Mhangura and Makonde constituencies only,” he said.
Chimombe is alleged to have unleashed hooligans who
disrupted an inter-district meeting in Chinhoyi on May 8, 2021.
“This is now the second time that he (Chimombe) has done
it, using the same hooligans who hide behind the party, simply because they
will be wearing his hovhorosi (overalls) attire bearing a Zanu PF logo,”
Paradza said.
He further alleged that Chimombe’s “thugs” were terrorising
bona fide party supporters, adding that there was no peace in Chinhoyi.
“Instead of us uniting as a party and fighting to regain
the seat which has been under MDC since 2008, Mike Chimombe has seen it fit to
drive away the support we currently have in Chinhoyi,” Paradza said.
He said the May 8 meeting was so violent that he had to be
evacuated from the venue by security agents. Police had to throw teargas
canisters to disperse Chimombe’s marauding gangsters “who were visibly drunk”.
“They were accusing me of protecting the newly-elected
Makonde DCC youth affairs secretary, Ketty Chanetsa, who they want removed and
replaced with one of their own who had lost elections.”
The Makonde MP said the issue was reported to Mashonaland
West provincial chairperson Ziyambi Ziyambi. However, he said Ziyambi appeared
powerless as Chimombe boasted that he was Mnangagwa’s confidante.
“When I was elected DCC chairman last December, both Mike
Chimombe and Phillip Chiyangwa told me that they would do whatever it takes to
undermine all the party programmes in Makonde simply because I had defeated
their own preferred candidate, Misheck Nyarubero, whom they had sponsored
against me,” Paradza said.
He further alleged that Chiyangwa and Women Affairs deputy
minister Jennifer Mhlanga had pushed for the expulsion of Mnangagwa during the
late former President Robert Mugabe’s era.
“I can assure you that if no action is taken against Mike
Chimombe and to a larger extent Phillip Chiyangwa, then we will not recapture
Chinhoyi from the MDC. But Zanu PF is bigger than individuals,” he said.
Both Chiyangwa and Chimombe were not picking calls and also
did not respond to questions sent to them on WhatsApp.
In the 2018 harmonised elections, Mnangagwa garnered only 9
000 votes against MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa’s 18 000 votes in
Chinhoyi constituency. Newsday
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