The Sunday News
Freedom Mupanedemo
SINCE the turn of the millennium, the ruling Zanu-PF party has seen its urban vote dwindling with its stronghold remaining in the rural areas.
But the revolutionary party, resilient and focused as it is, has not lost hope and did not give up working hard to regain faith and voter confidence and in the 2013 general election, the opposition MDC-T was caught in its slumber and the resurgent Zanu-PF romped to victory taking a significant chunk of urban seats.
The party has continued to gain ground, winning seats in urban towns which for long, have been viewed as the stronghold of the opposition MDC-T.
And with the new party leadership, led by President Mnangagwa also charming the urban population and the world at large, the ruling party is poised to make further inroads.
One such cadre who, even when the opposition dominated seats in urban areas, has not lost hope working for the party and with the people in his constituency is Cde Isheunesu Mpereri of Mbizo constituency in Kwekwe.
His hard work for the revolutionary party coupled with a steady and constant touch with the people from his constituency later paid dividends when he romped to victory in the 2015 by-election in Mbizo after the MDC-T party recalled its MP, Mr Settlement Chikwinya who had defected to the other faction when MDC-T split for the umpteenth time.
Cde Mpereri inherited a seat which since the formation of the MDC in 1999, has been won by the opposition in every election. The electorate, however, later realised that all the promises that the opposition has been making in every election were never fulfilled. What has perhaps become trendy in the opposition party is its splits and name changes like MDC, MDC-T, MDC- M etc.
In the Mbizo by-election, the electorate rejected the party which focused on splits and changing names, voting resoundingly for Zanu-PF candidate Cde Mpereri who garnered over 8000 votes. Sadly Cde Mpereri said he inherited a “rotten” constituency which had been neglected since 1999 and the man had to start from scratch to try and clean the rot in Mbizo constituency.
“When I became MP for Mbizo in 2015, there was garbage all over and Mbizo was regarded as the dirtiest suburb in Kwekwe. Residents had a tendency of dumping garbage everywhere with the authorities turning a blind eye to it,” said Cde Mpereri.
He said in his first week in office, he hired graders and tippers to clear garbage in all the suburbs in Mbizo 1 up to Mbizo section 22.
“The suburb was very dirty so my first assignment was to give it a new look, I hired a grader and four tippers which cleared all the dump in the suburbs and engaged the city council to conduct routine refuse collecting and today, Mbizo suburb, is one of the cleanest suburbs in Kwekwe. There is no garbage dumping anymore and people know that there is a refuse truck that moves around collecting garbage,” he said.
Cde Mpereri said his second task as the MP was to make sure that people in his constituency get food relief and that all schools get food to feed pupils.
“You know there was drought in 2015 before the introduction of Command Agriculture and people in urban areas were not covered under Government’s food relief programme. I made sure that residents in my constituency were also incorporated under the food relief programme especially the vulnerable families.
“I also made sure that all the five primary schools in my constituency are under the food relief programme and up to now children from ECD up to Grade 3 are getting food at schools in Mbizo. Some schools even give pupils food up to Grade 7 and I always ensure that the food is available and at times use my own funds to make sure that there is food in schools,” he said.
Cde Mpereri said he had been working with schools in constituency to construct more blocks as well as providing materials for renovations.
“There are seven schools in my constituency, two secondary schools and five primary schools. What I have done is to identify challenges that these schools are facing, some have classroom block shortages while classrooms blocks in some schools needed renovations.
“I bought cement, doorframes and some roofing materials which I donated to the schools. I made donations to every school in my constituency depending on the challenges we would have identified at each school,” he said.
A successful farmer himself, Cde Mpereri said he still have many development projects lined up for his constituency and would seek to run for the same seat in the forthcoming elections so that he could complete his projects.
“You know I was elected in 2015 and we had very little time to do all the projects and I wish to continue with the projects when re-elected. In Mbizo we do not have a library so we will need to work on that so that we improve the education to our young generation by making all the resources available for a conducive learning environment,” he said.
Cde Mpereri said he was a man of his words and has since fulfilled some of the promises he made during his campaign.
“When I was campaigning I promised the party district leadership a beast each and after winning I donated a beast to each of the eight party districts in my constituency. I want every district to have its herd so that when we have functions each district would have something to slaughter,” he said.
Cde Mpereri said he also took party district leadership to parliament for them to familiarise themselves with what happens in parliament.
“I think I am the only MP to have done that, taking district leadership to parliament so that the people who elected us have an appreciation of what happens in parliament. I had to foot all their travel and booking expenses for them to have an understanding on what we do when in parliament,” he said.
Mrs Catharine Masvingise, from Mbizo constituency said she was happy with the work the MP was doing in the constituency. She said Cde Mpereri was always with the people unlike the former MP from the opposition party who had relocated to Harare.
“He is one MP who is always in the constituency, always in touch with the people to share with them their challenges. We have had one MP from the opposition since 1999 but there was no tangible change which they always promise people when campaigning,” she said.
Another resident for Mbizo, Mr Charles Makonye said Cde Mpereri should be given a second chance.
“I think he is in the right direction. He works with the people and needs to be given a second chance so that he completes a term as an MP, we will definitely see some change in our constituency. The party to vote for is Zanu PF across board,” he said.
