Former Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe is reportedly set to contest the newly-created Cowdray Park National Assembly seat on a Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) ticket in forthcoming elections.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube will represent ZANU PF in Cowdray Park after he sailed through uncontested during the party’s primary elections.
The CCC candidate selection process took place last Wednesday countrywide and those nominated will then fight it out in internal elections on a date yet to be advised.
The Sunday News reported that in Bulawayo, nominations include Khupe for Cowdray Park and Sindiso Mazibisa who is set to battle it out with incumbent MP, Anele Ndebele and political activist, Promise Mkhwananzi in Magwegwe.
In Bulawayo South, incumbent Makokoba MP, Alderman James Sithole will face businessman Francis Mangwendeza while the party’s deputy spokesperson Gift “Ostallos” Siziba has been nominated for the Pelandaba-Tshabalala constituency.
In Nketa, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) chairperson, Ambrose Sibindi was nominated together with Obert Manduna and the incumbent MP, Phelela Masuku.
David Coltart is reportedly set to contest Councillor Tawanda Ruzive in Ward Five, amid indications that CCC is pushing for Coltart to be the next city’s mayor.
The majority of the Bulawayo councillors, who have previously denied allegiance to Douglas Mwonzora, were reportedly nominated in the process.
CCC spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, recently told reporters that the process has at least four stages with the nomination being the first stage. She said:
Following the nomination [process], there is going to be a vetting process and the fact that one has been nominated is not the end of the situation, it doesn’t mean that you are yet eligible to be a candidate.
There will also be a process of community consensus building where citizens will come together and be told there is X, there is Y candidate, who do you prefer and why, they have an opportunity to make their case, deliver a very brief manifesto of what they plan to deliver in their wards or constituency and also to take questions from the community concerning their eligibility to run.
Reports suggest that CCC’s so-called Change Champion in Chief Nelson Chamisa was unanimously nominated to stand as the opposition party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections.
Chamisa is the founding leader of the party and his allies have described him as the party’s “best foot” to challenge ZANU PF leader, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, for the second time after narrowly losing the race in 2018.
More: Pindula News