A ZAPU aspiring candidate for Umguza constituency has attacked Zanu PF politburo member Obert Mpofu, also MP for the area, accusing him of vote buying.
Pamela Mhlanga
Zapu southern regional co-ordinator Mark Mbayiwa alleged that Mpofu was not fit to be MP for Umguza constituency, claiming the Zanu PF legislator was out of touch with reality.
Mbayiwa charged that Mpofu, who has been holding rallies in and around Matabeleland North drumming up support for President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF, was flaunting his riches in a desperate measure to woo voters. He said Mpofu was using his money and maize to lure supporters to vote for him.
“I agree that Obert Mpofu receives scores of people in his rallies, with some rallies having as many as 3 000 people attending, but who are those people? But that does not mean that thousands of people who attend his rallies actually support him,” Mbayiwa told Southern Eye yesterday.
“The majority would be coming for the maize only and the money that he always dishes out at his rallies.”
He added that Mpofu had a tendency of pretending to develop his area only towards election time so that people would support and vote for him.
“The state and general appearance of the area he is representing is worse with potholed roads and dilapidated infrastructure despite his presence as an MP,” Mbayiwa said. “The clinic where I was born in the area is in a terrible state with Mpofu always pretending to rehabilitate the mortuary only towards elections.”
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Mbayiwa said the only thing that Mpofu had done, as far as development was concerned, was developing his “fancy” house.Contacted for comment yesterday, Mpofu told Southern Eye he was not moved by allegations raised by a “small party”.
“Vote-buying; what is wrong with that? I don’t think there is anything wrong with vote-buying as far as I am concerned, but how does one buy as many people as 3 000?” Mpofu quipped.
He said he was not worried about Mbayiwa’s accusations because they came from a “small party”.
