By Robbie Ncube
Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe (News of The South)- G40 member, land baron and business man Owen Sibanda is assured of being the next Chairperson of the Tsholotsho District Coordinators Committee (DCC).
This follows spirited vows by exiled former National Political Commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere who insists that he remains a party card carrying member and is said to be eyeing Zanu PF presidency as they believe to be having support within the party. Sibanda is a known ally of Kasukuwere and cousin to divisive G40 King-maker Prof Jonathan Moyo.
Sibanda has been at loggerheads with Tsholotsho’s local traditional leadership and villagers after Zanu PF recently accepted his CV having expressed interest in becoming the Chairperson of the DCC.
To show his seriousness in becoming the next Zanu PF leader in the district, Sibanda last week started his campaigns across the District and also established his chosen team to work with.
Surprisingly, Zanu PF has not yet opened the floor for people to start campaigning. As of 23 September, Sibanda and his runners had visited the following wards across Tsholotsho 20, 5, 1, 14, 8, 3 and 9 where he is bribing people with money and handing over food parcels to them.
“We are regrouping and we will surely win a lot of DCC because we are members of the party and no one can do anything about that. Our candidate Owen Sibanda in Tsholotsho has no match, he is popular more than the president ED himself. We will be sending a message through winning Tsholotsho. We have a strong candidate Sibanda who also has support of our brothers who remain in the system. The reason you see that the Lacoste has failed to even remove him from that land shows you that we are in control in Tsholotsho. Despite them having a high court order instructing Cde Sibanda to go they will never do anything, we are in charge of the district,” said our source on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals.
She added: “Our campaigns have been going so well so far. Despite all spirited fights by the war veterans and the traditional local leadership they will never manage us, we are in control. We are certain that countrywide we will get nearly two thirds of the DCCs.”
The G40 is also said to be targeting Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West provinces.
However, last week Tsholotsho local traditional leadership called for president H.E Emmerson Mnangagwa to intervene and stop the ongoing undermining of traditional leadership’s jurisdictions by a “power hungry land baron without people’s interests at heart”.
Last week details also emerged of how Sibanda was assisted to smuggle his CV to contest as a DCC chairperson Tsholotsho Senator Alice Dube who is originally from Nkayi and Tsholotsho South MP Zenzo Sibanda who is originally from Mashonaland Central.
It is said that on orders of Senator Dube and MP Sibanda the current party District Executive was back dated to 2013 to smuggle Sibanda while FACTS show that the district restructuring was done in 2015. The move aimed at back-dating the structures was done to accommodate Owen Sibanda as a contestant. The backdated list now shows that Owen was a member then in 2013.
The move was also aimed to bypass the rule that Owen Sibanda does not qualify to stand as the Chairperson of the District Coordinators Committee (DCC) as he is less than five years old in the party. Sibanda who has been resident in South Africa only relocated to Zimbabwe in 2017 after being invited to the country by Prof Jonathan Moyo.
The fight between Sibanda, local traditional leadership and villagers began when Sibanda who had returned from South Africa grabbed land in Godzo village and council land in Tsholotsho Business Centre in 2017.
The villagers argue that Sibanda does not have the interests of the locals and Zanu PF at heart.
Upon returning from South Africa, Sibanda connived and unlawful allocated land to himself assisted by his close ally – a former ward 13 MDC T Councillor Clemence Ndlovu and uncle who is current secretary for Transport Patrick Ngwenya.
Recently Chief Conrad Magama said: “It is sad that Zanu PF recently accepted a CV of a land baron Sibanda who allocated himself land meant for communal occupation under my jurisdiction without the approval of local leadership in our ward 13.
“I recently met with all my village headmen and all local leadership; we agreed that we will never accept a land baron to politically preside over our jurisdiction. Our people have suffered a lot because of Mr Sibanda. Our people spent time in prison because of Mr Sibanda who has friends in the police that survive through his bribes.
“We have also engaged all Chiefs and traditional leaders across the entire Tsholotsho district about the matter and we all agree that we will never allow anyone who uses his money to bribe and steal our ancestral land,” he said.
Working with former MDC ward 13, in 2018, Sibanda forcefully occupied and fenced about 30 hectares of land in Godzo Line of Ward 13 resulting in tension with the local Chief Conrad Magama.
When Sibanda occupied and put a fence around 30 hectares of land in Godzo line both the Chief and the villagers were very angry as he did not have any legal documents permitting him to do that. This irritated the community, prompting them to burn and destroy the property.
Following this incident about 126 members were arrested until the Minister of Local Governance intervened. The matter was taken to the courts (case no HC3148/18/2018) and the ruling was in favour of the villagers.
Sibanda was served with an eviction notice in March 2019, but he disregarded the ruling and continued to occupy the land.
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