ZANU PF has instructed all its party candidates who lost in the recent harmonised elections to return the high-end vehicles they were given prior to the 2023 political campaigns.
The party had distributed 210 brand new vehicles, including 4×4 Nissan Navaras and Ford Rangers, to parliamentary representatives participating in the elections. However, ZANU PF had previously warned that those who lost would be required to surrender the vehicles.
In a circular dated September 29, 2023, addressed to all provincial chairpersons, ZANU PF Secretary General Obert Mpofu emphasised that all defeated candidates must return the cars by Wednesday without exception. He wrote:
This serves as a directive to all the Zanu PF parliamentary candidates that participated and did not succeed in the just-ended harmonised elections to surrender the party vehicles that were allocated to them to the Zanu PF party headquarters by Wednesday 4 October 2023 without fail.
This is pursuant to the circular that was issued before, followed by a decision made by the party leadership at the Politburo meeting held on 28 September 2023.
ZANU PF has instructed provincial chairpersons to ensure the successful implementation of the directive. This directive will affect dozens of losing candidates. In previous elections, unsuccessful candidates were allowed to use party-issued vehicles for constituency work. It is unclear where the vehicles will be deployed, but some may be allocated to elected party officials and others may be used as pool cars at different levels. President Emmerson Mnangagwa‘s party spent millions of dollars purchasing these campaign vehicles in his bid for re-election.