I will die in MDCT – Mukwapati

Fungayi Munyoro-Chingaira

CHIPINGE TIMES REPORTER

CHIPINGE–Outgoing Chipinge Town Council chairperson and MDC-T District Secretary Lovemore Mukwapati said he has no intentions of leaving the Douglas Mwonzora-led party. 
Mukwapati who successfully filed his nomination papers for Chipinge Urban Ward 6 said he will only quit the party when he dies. 
He is campaigning against Jobe Chisoro (Zanu PF), Takesure Mafaune (Citizen Coalition for Change) and Lilian Semwayo (National Constitutional Assembly).
“I am delighted after successfully filing my nomination forms for the August 23, 2023 elections because the exercise was stressful. 
“I joined the MDC in 2000 and this is my twenty-third year as a member. I intend to stay in the party until the end of my days,” he said.
Mukwapati was elected Ward 6 councillor in 2008 and lost to Zanu PF’s Livingston Makangara in 2013. He bounced back in 2018.
The veteran politician conceded that his party is functioning with a depleted side. He said their candidates ‘defected to CCC, a breakaway party’. 
The MDC-T managed to field six candidates in Chipinge Urban’s eight wards, and these are Sekai Makuyana (Ward 1), no candidate in Ward 2, Sarah Mlambo (Ward 3), Nhengu Haruchemi Nhengu (Ward 4), Mukwapati (Ward 6) and Panganai Dhibi (Ward 8).
He said the party struggled to field candidates in rural areas because their members are afraid of Zanu PF, and they delayed internal selection processes. 
“We could not field candidates in rural wards since there was a challenge on our national organizing department whose communication came late. The other challenge in rural wards. Our people are afraid of Zanu PF members,” he said.
Mukwapati also said that the council carried out several projects he led as chairperson during his tenure.
“During my tenure in office, I managed to resuscitate the water supply situation in Chipinge. I have also constructed a market for vendors. I worked hard to establish the bio-digester programme. We pushed for the building of St Kelvin Secondary School and the construction of the town cemetery toilet. We managed to construct two pay toilets in town and work on Chinheya- Dzinzai Road. We also managed to set up an innovation hub next to the council boardroom where our town youth get access to information,” he said.