(Last Updated on July 26, 2013 by Editor)
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe attacked on controversial businessman and farmer Munyaradzi Kereke who has defied a party directive to withdraw his Bikita West candidature and back former workmate and party choice Elias Musakwa.
Addressing party loyalists at a star rally in Masvingo’s Mucheke stadium Thursday, Mugabe also described the country’s private media as “stupid� claiming they were siding with his MDC rivals’ clamour  for key reforms before next week’s elections.
The Zanu PF leader lashed out at the MDC parties for demanding a poll delay insisting he was enjoined by the country’s laws to call for elections at the expiry of parliament, whatever the prevailing political circumstances.
He said: “‘VaMugabe vakanganisa, vaMugabe vazoita proclaimation; ah, he is rushing us into an election, but we don’t have a parliament! What do you say about that?
“Ndiyo MDC thinking iyoyo and their stupid papers. Zvipepa zvavo zvinovatsigira right or wrong tinenge tichingotsigira ukuku. Even the mistakes, the journalists support those errors. They support the errors, the blunders.
“That’s your journalists. What is the conscience of journalists? The journalist must have a conscience, that sense of truth, that sense of honesty. It doesn’t exist!�
Mugabe then turned to his own party politicians who have insisted on contesting in the July 31 polls despite losing party primaries.
“Mazita ose akauya kwatiri kuparty kuheadquarters evanhu vakanga vasarudzwa tichinzwa nhoroondo dzese nemasarudziro ose. Isu takanga tapawo marules acho ekuti vanosarudzwa ndovanenge vagara kumusangano kwemakore akati kuti.
“Zvino kana wanga usati wagara mumusangano kwemakore iwayo urimunhu wanga uchiitao basa rakati kuti waitosungirwa kucheneswa nesu kuheadquarters. Kana usinakucheneswa nesu hauzvimanikidzire pavanhu; hazvinei kuti unemari, hazvinei kuti ungaunganidze machief akadii, hazvinei, hazvinei futi kuti vanhu vakakuvotere, hatikutambire.�
In an apparent vote buying gimmick, Kereke, in June this year, handed over 30 tonnes of maize to seven chiefs from Bikita district for distribution to war veterans and hunger-stricken villagers.
He went on to donate US$7,000 to the Bikita district war veterans’ leadership to spruce up Bikita District Heroes Acre and also building a pre-cast wall around the district shrine which was in a state of disrepair owing to years of neglect.
Kereke, who runs the upmarket Rock Foundation Hospital in one of Harare’s northern suburbs, also took with him, a group of doctors and nurses to his Bikita constituency to give free specialist medical treatment to villagers.
“We will never accept a person who is impudent, irresponsible, disobedient, non-compliant and will want to impose himself on others. Hatidii! Tinoda vanhu vanoterera murau. I obey the rules of the party and the rules of the country.�
Mugabe, who is seeking a seventh term as president, told supporters he sanctioned the populist directive by local government minister Ignatius Chombo to cancel outstanding bills owed to local authorities countrywide claiming the debtswere due to the mismanagement of MDC-led councils.
He urged his followers to vote overwhelmingly for his party to restore the yesteryear Zanu PF “one-party-state� which he said operated better than the outgoing hybrid administration he formed 2008 with his rivals.