Kwekwe, which is deemed by many to be President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s turf is on the verge of takeover by opposition CCC leader Nelson Chamisa who will this weekend take his charges and seek to grab the gold rich town into his newly formed outfit.

Mnangagwa will also be in the midlands town for his party’s campaign rally and it could be yet another battle for numbers and optics after the two fetes.

Buoyed by the bumper crowd he registered at the launch of the party’s by elections campaign last Sunday, Chamisa hopes to take his political crusade to the mining city.

The venue of Chamisa’s rally is a spitting distance from the venue of Mnangagwa’s own rally Mbizo Stadium. Mnangagwa’s rally is set for Saturday.

“The people’s President, Nelson Chamisa, will be launching a CCC campaign in Gokwe on Saturday, and Kwekwe Central on Sunday,” CCC Midlands Provincial spokesperson Takavafira Zhou said in an interview.

Zhou said the two Midlands rallies for Chamisa are expected to draw bumper crowds.

“The people’s power will be demonstrated as thousands of supporters are expected to attend these rallies. The most important aspect of a political party is grassroots support and the by-elections will separate the real advocates of change and sustainable development from pretenders. The CCC wave blowing across Zimbabwe will fire yellow warning shots from which it will spring to success in by-elections and 2023 elections. No amount of force and brutality can stop an idea whose time is up,” said Zhou.

Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba promised fireworks.

“We are going to be in Kwekwe this weekend. Let’s show them we rule the urban roost,” Charamba said on his Twitter handle.