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Harare Bureau
ZANU-PF has yielded the axe on the head of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Mr Munyaradzi Katsande, and suspended the party’s director for administration Cde Dickson Dzora, pending investigations into a number of wayward activities.

Cde Katsande was fired for tampering with registers for the voters in the recently held provincial elections.  Zanu-PF Secretary for Information and Publicity, Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa, confirmed the development at a press conference held at the party headquarters in Harare yesterday afternoon, saying that there was a major shakeup at the party headquarters.

“We have our director general Cde Dickson Dzora, he is on suspension. He was suspended on the instruction and directive of President ED Mnangagwa.

He has been unhappy about many wayward activities, which have been going on at the party. But the last straw was the gross incompetence and perhaps they were connived by Dickson Dzora and his team to run the last elections and just generate chaos all over the ten provinces. That was really enough for the President,” said Ambassador Mutsvangwa.

During the just-ended provincial elections, there were reports of delays in the disbursement of ballot papers at most voting centres across the country

“There was also an investigation which was carried out by the party’s security department on the abuse of tender procedures to favour ghost companies, which may have been related to him. So he has gone.  He is under suspension.

It has been confirmed this morning (yesterday) by Cde Obert Mpofu who is the Secretary General of the party,” said Ambassador Mutsvangwa.

On the expulsion of Cde Katsande, Ambassador Mutsvangwa said he was found tempering  with the provincial registers for voters.

“President Mnangagwa himself fired another official in the ICT department, Cde Katsande.  He was fired because he was found tampering with registers for the voters for the past provincial elections in the party”.

The President, Ambassador Mutsvangwa said, is determined to run a clean show at the party headquarters so that the membership can be confident on the administration of all the affairs of the party including the all-important elections.

“You can now all see that we take our elections seriously. We want them to be clean as can be.  It doesn’t matter that you are a big fish, if you fall foul, President Mnangagwa will move against you. He is not the only one.

It has happened at the Government level. Somebody else has just left his job in the Cabinet. So the signal is out there,” said Ambassador Mutsvangwa. Zanu-PF will contest in the coming by-elections to fill 28 vacancies in the parliamentary seats and 117 local authorities by elections.

“We are now going into the primary elections for the by-elections, which are coming in March. We are feverishly preparing for those elections meeting the timeline which the President has put as a Government executive. So we can’t afford sloppiness.

We can’t afford slackness. Definitely we can’t afford infiltration of our administrative system at the party, that is why the President is cracking the whip,” Ambassador Mutsvangwa said.

Meanwhile, the party has received an overwhelming response with 119 candidates submitting their Curriculum Vitae (CVs)  with intention to contest the 28 parliamentary seats in the upcoming by-elections set for March 26.