A Highlanders Football Club bus bought with the aid of Zimbabwe Defence Industries chairman, Tshinga Dube, who is also contesting a local parliamentary by-election in Bulawayo as a Zanu PF candidate, is causing a political stink in Makokoba constituency and beyond.
Some Highlanders supporters and political observers claim that Dube, who has donated varying amounts of money to the club over the years and has tried to become Makokoba lawmaker for a long time, is allegedly trying to use the club’s popularity to gain political mileage.
One of the disgruntled city residents, Dumisani Mpofu of Cowdray Park suburb, says it is surprising that even Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will attend a ceremony to hand over the bus to the club executive Saturday at Barbourfields Stadium.
Mr. Mnangagwa is widely linked with the 1980s atrocities in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces by the North-Korean trained Fifth Brigade, which left at least 20,000 people dead. He has never talked about this issue.
Several other city residents and some Zimbabweans outside Bulawayo feel that Dube is using Highlanders Football Club in an attempt to win the Makokoba seat.
But Zanu PF Central Committee member, David Ndlovu, says there is nothing wrong with close relations between Highlanders and Zanu PF.