Chipinge South Candidate Profile Series #2
Name:
Clifford Hlatywayo
Party:
MDC Alliance
Chipinge South
Constituency has the highest rate of child abuse, gender-based violence and
extreme levels of poverty in the district. The constituency has had this social
crisis for a long time in view of the politician’s complete abdication of their
responsibility. It is with this view that politicians should demonstrate how
this unacknowledged social crisis can be addressed at the local and national
level. The Chipinge District Candidate Series wants to get people talking about
ideas like these during the election campaign.
Clifford Hlatywayo is a product of student
activism and has been consistent in the fight for democratic change in
Zimbabwe. After his graduation from the University of Zimbabwe, he was roped
into the MDC T Election Directorate based at Harvest House in Harare. In 2008,
whilst working in the Election Directorate, he was instrumental in the
disbursement of party regalia and materials to the Constituency and Chipinge
District in general. In 2011 at the MDC T Annual Congress in Bulawayo he was
elected as the Youth Assembly Secretary for Information and Publicity, a
position that propelled him into the echelons of power within MDC T. Since then
he has enjoyed the challenges and rewards of serving in the MDC T Youth
Assembly. Clifford Hlatywayo is highly rated within the MDC T Youth assembly as one of the
strong youthful leaders. In 2008, he was a key member of Meki Makuyana’s
campaign team together with Claris Madhuku, Takawira Mupakati and Vrante
Mahlupeko Jambaya with Bothwell Zito and Jerry Moyana providing the necessary
political cover within the team. Together they managed and shaped the politics
of Chipinge South Constituency culminating in Meki Makuyana garnering a
staggering 16 139 votes. Clifford Hlatywayo is among the first team of Board
members who facilitated the formal registration of the Platform for Youth
Development as a Trust in October 2008,a community based organization that has
become a voice and conscience of the community.
Despite this highly effective team of
2008, Clifford Hlatywayo appear to be running a lone campaign as his trusted
lieutenants have abandoned him and is yet to come up with a team of the same
calibre and focus. This is attributed to the events leading to the 2013
harmonised elections. In the run up to the 2013 harmonised elections, Clifford
Hlatywayo contested in the
primaries seeking the party’s mandate to represent MDC T in Chipinge South, an
episode that turned out badly for him and his political career. However, the
contest and subsequent failure made him to conclude that Makuyana had the
ingenuity to be supported as the means to deny him the sole ticket to the
National Assembly. Through his political astuteness and shrewdness, he has now
outmanoeuvred his critics and opponents by maximising on the MDC T’s resolution
to grant the seat under the youth quota system. A move that culminated in a
serious outcry from some sections of the party’s structures in Chipinge South. Disgruntled
MDC Alliance members launched a formal complaint to the party election
directorate to challenge what they deem as an imposition under the guise of a
youth quota system. The major setback is that Hlatywayo must overcome the
challenge from Jerry Moyana and Kuda Chiororo who initially were supposed to contest
him in the MDC Alliance primary election. The duo of Chiororo and Moyana have
already been nominated as candidates for Chipinge South seeking to garner votes
from the same support base with Hlatywayo.
With a SMART agenda anchoring his campaign
strategies, Chipinge South constituency is grappled with a social crisis in the
form of loss of opportunities, crippling levels of poverty and harmful cultural
practices targeting girls and women. It is important that electoral agenda be
based on justice, equality and solidarity as an empowerment tool for the
community.
Clifford Hlatywayo will be facing his close
friend Takawira Mupakati and five others in this mouth-watering election. It is
interesting to note that Clifford Hlatywayo and Takawira Mupakati share the
same birthday and political history in the constituency.
#MugangaWedu2018
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