Former Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi claims Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba is having an affair with Mines Minister Winston Chitando (pictured below).
Kudzayi argues that this compromises Chigumba’s impartiality due to a potential conflict of interest. He says as a result Chigumba must resign. He also says he is ready to defend the allegations in a court of law. Below is a series of Kudzayi’s tweets:
I don’t intend to humiliate Chigumba or to invade her privacy tabloid style. All I seek is to expose a clear conflict of interest that likely explains Chigumba’s arrogance against overwhelming evidence of ZEC’s mismanagement of the election. She is conflicted & must resign.
We have seen a contrived and desperate ballot paper illegally designed to favour Mnangagwa. We have seen Zanu PF using VR phone numbers to illegally text voters. We have seen Chigumba illegally wearing a Zanu PF scarf. ZEC is obstinate & accountable to Zanu PF, not the voter.
The ZEC chairperson is the last line of defence against electoral malpractice. As such, the person must be an upstanding member of society with probity that’s beyond reproach. Can a woman who has an affair with a married cabinet minister be such a person? The answer is no.
Zimbabwe needs men and women of integrity to lead our constitutional bodies. Chigumba is not a woman of integrity or moral conviction. She has proven to be a Zanu PF puppet who was placed in the ZEC chair because, like Mudede and Makarau, she’s ready and willing to play ball.
Chigumba is a judge of the High Court and she knows the implications of perjuring herself. If she denies and I prove, she is finished. Chigumba knows that her sexual relationship with Chitando is a fact. Her silence in the face of a screaming scandal is a testament to this.
So, ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba has a sexual relationship with Zanu PF cabinet minister Winston Chitando. This presents a clear conflict of interest: if Zanu PF loses the election her lover will lose his job. She must do the right thing and resign. Ndatenda.