“Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa says he loves ZANU (PF) more than anything else but as a fellow party member I think the Advisor to President Mnangagwa should publicly apologise if he should entertain any hopes of coming back to represent us in the House of Assembly for Norton,” said Masimba Chikukwa, a Norton resident.
“The reasons why I support the party which is blamed by many for destroying the country are also many and varied but I won’t get into that for it will digress from my topic. My point of concern today is the Norton issue which seems to have died a natural death with people seemingly going silent about it.
“During the Primary election we elected Langton Mutendereki to represent the party and he defeated Chris Mutsvangwa, who is also the Special Advisor to President ED. It was one of the cleanest defeats considering the rest of the results across the country. That was later overturned and Mutsvangwa found himself back in the running, with Mutendereki sidelined. For all the seeming silence the party’s leadership should know that down here in Norton that matter is still very much alive and Andis far from dead as they would like to think. They foisted a candidate upon us not just us in the party but also on the rest of Norton,” Chikukwa added.
Another resident, Charlotte Rwodzi said Ambassador Mutsvangwa’s return to Parliament would be difficult since he had morphed into a character who is infamous for many negative things in Norton.
“Last time he lost, Chris destroyed many things he had erected, installed and brought into the area. He was so bitter at his loss that he lost all sense of logic and common sense, and forgetting that he would return one day to contest.
“He even took away ambulances he had brought and left the Hospital with nothing. Can you believe that level of inhumanity? Two years down the line, how do you reinvent that kind of person to the electorate. How do we present him to the same people he shunned after his loss and regarded as lowly creatures? It’s impossible. Mutsvangwa is a hard sell to make and the party’s leadership should know that about Mutsvangwa’s candidature. He should come down to us and plead for our mercy,” Rwodzi said.
Another man clad in ZANU (PF) regalia who identified himself as Washington said internally, there was a lot of anger at the imposition of Ambassador Mutsvangwa’s candidature.
“The party expects the very same people whom it denied the joy of seeing Mutendereki at the front changing and voting for Chris, on the basis of the party being bigger than an individual. Politics is not a Christian exercise in practicing charity and forgiveness, it’s a blood and bone battle that has little room for forgiveness and forgetting.
“In giving us Chris, the party’s hierarchy made a fatal mistake which I believe they will experience come 30 July 2018. Many in the party structures are going around with bitterness but not brave enough to come out and express their displeasure but very much vowing to express it through the ballot,” Washington said.
In the rural wards 13 and 15 people still come out for the meetings but the discontent is there just as it is simmering in the urban wards.
“Forewarned is forearmed but this time around my warning is too late and useless to the party’s leadership for I very well know they would not heed it even if there was time. Mutsvangwa is a blunder that has been foisted upon Norton and ZANU PF will regret it.”