Soccer match to buy votes, ends in red card for Minister

By Lance Guma
18 March 2008

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu had a tough time over the weekend after pouring Z$4 billion into a ‘social’ football match that ended in the participants telling him to his face they hated both Zanu PF and the Minister himself. Ndlovu is contesting in Bulawayo’s Mpopoma constituency on a Zanu PF ticket and is desperate to stem the tide of two election defeats to the late MDC MP Milton Gwetu in the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary elections. Ndlovu is a wealthy businessman who owns a string of private colleges and he sponsored a match between Eastern Rovers and local ‘boozers’ team Umthala United.

Our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme reports that there were two VIP guests at the match - former Dynamos and national team coach Sunday Chidzambwa, plus the Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Defence Industries, Colonel Tshinga Dube. The stage seemed set for Ndlovu to win a few votes from the goodwill generated, until a man wearing a Tsvangirai T-shirt walked past the VIP area, which generated thunderous applause from the spectators. The man proceeded to sit near the Information Minister who, not to be outdone, bought huge quantities of beer for all those present.

The end of the match however served to wipe away any doubts that Ndlovu was not going to have his way. After giving out the Z$4 billion prize money to the winning team he tried to distribute 30 Zanu PF t-shirts to each of the participating teams and supporters. This triggered a barrage of cat whistles and boos with the crowd telling him in Ndebele; ‘Kudhala sasizonda i Zanu PF kuphela, kathesi sizonda iZanu PF lawe wena Sikhanyiso wangikhona’ (In the past we used to hate Zanu PF only, but now we hate Zanu PF and even you Sikhanyiso).

Meanwhile Zanu PF candidate Colonel Tshinga Dube who is contesting in the Makokoba constituency is reported to have bought up all the mealie meal delivered to the suburb and was allegedly distributing this for free, to buy votes. Dube is competing for votes against MDC candidates from the two different factions, Thokozani Khupe and Welshman Ncube. He has also undertaken to pay the medical bills of all the elderly people in the constituency at a local Makokoba clinic. Michelle Hakata, a UK based journalist who spent the last 3 weeks in Zimbabwe, told Newsreel that Zanu PF candidates have a lot of resources and money to splash around, compared to the opposition candidates.