Tsholotsho has become a symbolic battleground in the Zimbabwean elections with the ruling Zanu-PF, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and independent candidate Jonathan Moyo, former information minister, vying for the parliamentary seat in the March poll.
This otherwise sleepy town, 110km from Bulawayo, has impacted like no other on the country’s political landscape. Tsholotsho was the location of a controversial meeting last November of the camp that supported Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa’s failed bid for the Zanu-PF vice-presidency.
Six provincial chairpersons were suspended for attending the gathering, and Moyo, the town’s favourite son, fell from Zanu-PF grace.
Tsholotsho’s 45Â 000 registered voters, like others who hail from Matebeleland, traditionally support the opposition.
“They practise tactical voting,” an NGO worker who preferred to remain anonymous told the Mail & Guardian. “They go for parties or candidates that will deliver. They are naturally hostile to Zanu-PF, but if you demonstrate you can bring development, you will get the nod.
“This time independent candidates have mushroomed. It will be important to see how they fare. If they win, the people will be slowly registering a protest vote against the opposition, which has to pull up its socks if it is to pose a serious challenge.”
Tsholotsho bucks the trend of political intolerance that pervades the rest of the country, where interparty violence claimed about 200 lives during the 2000 parliamentary election campaign.
Beer halls and shops carry campaign posters of the ruling party and the opposition, and party supporters can don their colours without fear of reprisals.
“There is nothing to fear here,” says Kimpton Sibanda of the MDC. “There hasn’t been a single drop of blood that’s been shed.”
Cephas Ncube, a Zanu-PF supporter, says, “We are all relatives. There’s no point fighting each other.”
Mtoloki Sibanda is the MDC candidate and Musa Mathema represents the ruling party’s effort to wrestle the seat from the opposition.
Despite his lack of party backing, Moyo remains popular in the area and is credited with establishing a grain marketing board depot, installing tower lights and setting up a football team, Tsholotsho Pirates FC.
The opposition has significant influence in the surrounding rural villages, however, where people bore the brunt of the violence in the 1980s when President Robert Mugabe unleashed the Korean-trained 5th brigade to quell “insurgents”, killing at least 20Â 000 people. And this could prove to be Moyo’s undoing — his allegiance to Mugabe. People in Matebeleland defected from Zanu-PF en masse after the death of Matebeleland father figure Joshua Nkomo.
Last Saturday, a defiant black bull with a wrinkled neck emerged and stood motionless under a tree, as the MDC candidate took to the podium. “It shows the ancestors approve off what we are doing,” said Sibanda. “We are winning this constituency; what this bull has done is rare.”
Still, it is the Moyo name that is most closely associated with the area.
Residents describe Moyo as the man who introduced the locals to cellphones.
“If you walk around the market place, you will find street kids talking on the cellphones,” said a
resident who gave his name only as George. “If you go to Bulawayo, there are businessmen without cellphones. If Moyo is a thief, then he is a good thief because he shares his money with others. He is not stingy like those in Zanu-PF.”
But even though the ruling party’s campaign in the area has been fairly low-key, Tsholotsho registered the highest number of votes for Mugabe of the 21 Matabeleland provinces in the 2002 presidential race. Opponents dispute this statistic, charging irregularities, and claim that in a free and fair election, neither Moyo nor a Zanu-PF candidate would retain a seat anywhere in Matabeleland.
Vehicles with Gauteng number plates have become a status symbol and outnumber local cars. Hundreds of school dropouts jump the border in search of greener pastures in South Africa. Marriages have broken down as a result of the great trek south. Aids statistics have soared.
“There are simply no employment opportunities for [the youth] here,” says Gibson Mathe, a trader at Tsholotsho business centre. “It is just a dry region only suitable for ranching, and we can’t all be on the farms.”
Nevertheless, Tsholotsho is full of life every evening — because of the tower lights. “That explains why Moyo is popular. Almost everyone adores him,” says resident Patrick Mathuthu.
In Tsholotsho, Moyo glows as he struts around in his cowboy hat and campaign T-shirt. After addressing a meeting of his party supporters last Friday, he addressed journalists in the backroom of a bar. He avoided taking a swipe at Mugabe, whom he lists in his manifesto as one of Zimbabwe’s five heroes, but he laid into Zanu-PF.
Moyo’s performance will be a key indicator to understanding the psyche of the people of Matabeleland.