By A Correspondent- Zanu PF Mashonaland Central, Provincial Chairman and Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe is under fire for bribing a party member with a Zanu PF vehicle.

Zanu PF insiders said Kazembe is under investigation for co-opting and bribing a member of his provincial structures, Shephard Kararira, with a party’s Ford Ranger truck to help him rig the pending Provincincial Chairmanship elections.

Kazembe’s unilateral decision to co-opt his friends into the party structures was nullified by the Zanu PF acting political commissar Patrick Chinamasa, and Kararira was supposed to return the car to the party.

But on Friday, Kararira said he was using the car to mobilise support for the party’s national conference to be held in the province, which has since been called off.

“I am using that car to mobilise support for the conference which our province is hosting and as we speak, the chairman (Kazembe) also gave us his party car and we now have four cars,” he said.
“So for one to demand that car, it is nonsensical. We need to campaign with those cars and above all, we took two more cars from the party head office to drum up support for the conference.”

Chinamasa dismissed the co-options after Mashonaland Central War Veterans Association chairperson Sam Parirenyatwa protested against the move, accusing Kazembe of manipulating party structures in order retain his provincial position.

Parirenyatwa was supported by other party members who demanded that Kararira should return the party vehicle to one Tsine, who had been illegally demoted as provincial political commissar.

Kazembe faces still contests from former Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora, businessman James Makamba, among others for the provincial chairmanship.

Jostling for positions in Mashonaland Central has threatened to tear apart the party ahead of its national conference, whose dates are yet to be announced.