The victory of Barnwell Seremwe in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front primary elections to contest the Mount Darwin West by-election was hailed by the private media as a victory for former Vice-President Joice Mujuru. The reports said Seremwe had beaten national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere’s preferred candidate Caleb Karima and Godfrey Tsenengamu who was allegedly funded by Justice Wadyajena from Gokwe-Nembudziya showing that the former Vice-President still wielded a lot of power in her home province. But Seremwe told the Sunday Mail that he had fallen out with Mujuru way back in 2013 after he had questioned her lack of service delivery to the constituency. “Some time just before the elections in 2013 Mai Mujuru sent a delegation advising us that she wanted to hold a rally in the constituency. I protested vehemently and told her delegation that she should not hold any meetings in the constituency because she was not in touch with the people. So we banned her from holding the rallies until she developed our area. We made this ultimatum because she had spent several months without coming to address us or hear our concerns,” Seremwe was quoted as saying. “Dotito area is one the least developed constituencies in Zimbabwe but we had our very own daughter who was the Vice-President. Most of the roads here are unnavigable and it’s a struggle to secure transport to visit our relatives in other parts of the constituency. There is also a serious shortage of boreholes, clinics and schools. Most children are forced to walk distances of over 20 kilometres to get to the nearest school. There are only about three clinics in the whole constituency to serve the total number of 30 000 people who live in Mt Darwin West. During her tenure, Mai Mujuru was blind to all these challenges facing the people.”Surprisingly, Mujuru was elected for the seat and only lost it because of a technicality raised by the party 15 months later. So is Seremwe for or against Mujuru? Even if he were would he be so stupid to say so now? People may only know after the by-election, if it goes ahead as the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai is challenging the holding of any elections before the necessary electoral reforms to comply with the new national constitution.
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