BYJAIROS SAUNYAMA
ON this summer day, two years ago, Nyarai Tsvuura cut a lone figure at a Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting in Marondera during Zanu PF gatherings.
She was the provincial women’s league chairperson but could not occupy the front seat due to the party factional fights.
Instead, Lyn Gororo occupied the position, with the blessings of a group of powerful women in the party.
The late Joel Biggie Matiza, who was the then provincial chairperson, read a letter to the effect that Tsvuura, also a Mutoko legislator (PR) was the substantive women’s league boss.
The decision was made after the politburo had found Tsvuura not guilty of the accusations, which were noted as ‘gossiping’.
But this group of women did not take heed of the decision.
They responded through holding fresh elections claiming that Tsvuura was not voted to the position.
Tsvuura did not participate in the elections resulting in Gororo claiming the posts as planned.
The province disregarded the results but Tsvuura was barred from exercising her duties as the women’s league provincial boss.
The Central Committee (CC) recommended that Tsvuura be reinstated as the provincial women’s league boss in the last conference held in Bindura last year.
The reinstatement was captured in the final CC report.
But her joy was short-lived as the same group of women barred her again.
Senate President Mabel Chinomona, Secretary for Administration (women’s league) Monica Mutsvangwa among others, wrote letters defying the CC order and prevented Tsvuura from taking the reins.
Today, Tsvuura has had the last laugh after she was elected in the provincial basket in Mutoko.
Though tormented, rejected and barred from executing her duties, the politician has shrugged off stiff competition in the just ended provincial elections and waits to be accorded an influential post as the province’s women’s league political commissar.
Across the province lies Wedza District, the home of provincial affairs minister Aplonia Munzverengwi.
She reportedly fell out of favour with influential women in the national women’s league executive where she held the political commissariat post. She was seen as a threat to her colleagues who reportedly crafted frivolous accusations against her before being demoted to a lesser post.
Now nicknamed Deborah in the province, Munzverengwi was assigned to the deputy secretary for lands in the women’s league.
In a bid to show her abilities and influence, the former top cop contested in the provincial elections for the women’s league post.
She defeated incumbent, Gororo by a wide margin and is now back at the top.
“The elections are over, we are now working towards mobilising people to join us so that we achieve the six million votes tag,” Munzverengwi said during victory celebrations in Marondera.
The province was tasked to deliver 800 000 votes come next year’s elections.
The tales of both Tsvuura and Munzverengwi have revealed how Zanu PF has been imposing candidates or leaders for factional reasons.
Today, the party’s rejects have bounced back boasting of top posts in the province.