24 February 2008
Bulawayo — The forthcoming harmonised elections have drawn unprecedented interest from aspiring candidates, all promising to work to improve the lot of Zimbabweans.
But a look at the list of aspiring candidates, including those from Zanu PF, reveals that a number of them have skeletons in their cabinets which might cause the electorate to be wary.
Some of them were convicted of crimes involving dishonesty, while others have allegations of serious offences, such as rape, hanging over them.
But one candidate whose record might leave Zanu PF leaders, including President Robert Mugabe, with egg on their faces, is Bill Tshuma who is seeking to represent the ruling party in the Gwabalanda Senatorial seat.
On 27 January 2004, Tshuma was convicted of attempted sodomy. Court records show he tried his luck on a 23-year-old Harare man he had lured from a local supermarket with the promise of a job.
Tshuma tricked the desperate man to accompany him to Aisbley Farm, owned by the city council, which he claimed was his.
On arrival at the farm, he told the man that he was "handsome and gorgeous".
He also told the terrified man to fondle him in order to arouse his feelings. He proceeded to kiss the man, according to the court records.
After a short trial the magistrate found Tshuma, who could become a Zanu PF senator, guilty of trying to sodomise his victim and fined him $20 000 or 30 days in prison.
Mugabe describes homosexuals as "worse than pigs and dogs". He also accuses his enemies in the West of being "gay gangsters" bent on effecting legal regime change in Zimbabwe.
Constitutional expert, Lovemore Madhuku said Zimbabwean law does not bar anyone with a criminal conviction from standing for political office.
But he added it was up to political parties, as private organisations, to set specific parameters on the type of candidates they wanted to send to Parliament.
"Perhaps it is his opponents who could use the conviction against him to say, 'Don't vote for that man because he was convicted of this and that'," Madhuku said.
Zanu PF spokesman Effort Nkomo was not available for comment last week.
In 2002, Mugabe made political capital out of an incident in which the late MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, killed his wife before subsequently committing suicide in prison.
He said Zimbabweans could not entrust their future into the hands of violent leaders.
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