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Mirror Reporter
CHIREDZI–A list of 20 Zanu PF supporters aligned to Chiredzi West MP, Farai Musikavanhu were last Thursday barred from going on a trip to Harare to attend a Young Women for Economic Development Convention organized by ruling party president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The women were barred by Aliginia Samson, the Masvingo Provincial Women’s League chairperson after they arrived to board a bus that was supposed to leave Chitsanga Hall, Chiredzi for Harare on Thursday at 1am.
The arrangement was that each of Chiredzi’s four constituencies would send 20 women to the conference. In the end none of the women listed by Musikavanhu was allowed into the bus.
Musikavanhu confirmed the issue and said he was shocked to realise that none of the party members submitted by him was taken aboard. He said he was still waiting for answers.
“I was away at a family funeral when the trip was undertaken. I only heard about the development when I came back. Anybody aligned to Musikavanhu was not allowed into the bus. I am still trying to get answers,” said Musikavanhu.
Sources however, told The Mirror that there is suspicion that Musikavanhu created parallel structures after losing provincial party elections in December last year and the women he submitted were from some such structures and some of them not even members of the ruling party.
One of the women on the list, Fungisai Majekwana is alleged to be a member of ZIPP who contested against Musikavanhu in the July 2018 harmonised elections.
Majekwana told The Mirror that she left ZIPP in 2021 and joined Zanu PF and insisted that Samson gave preference to women from Chiredzi North whose MP is Roy Bhila.
Samson said she expected two busses for the trip but only one bus came and she was therefore forced to drop a lot of people from the trip and this included the 20 brought by Musikavanhu.
The women eligible for the convention were those between the ages of 16 and 45. President Mnangagwa, his Vice Constantino Chiwenga, Minister of Information and Publicity Monica Mutsvangwa, Ministers Stembiso Nyoni and Sekai Nzenza were some of the speakers at the conference.
“We mobilized women expecting that two buses would ferry them to Harare. Only one bus came and we were forced to reduce the numbers and give priority to women who had come from rural areas,” said Samson.https://masvingomirror.com/