By A Correspondent- Businessman and politician, James Makamba’s support base is growing ahead of the Zanu PF’s Mashonaland Central Provincial Chairman elections to the extent that the party’s current Provincial chairman, Kazembe Kazembe is now plotting to rig the election well before the dates have been set.

Makamba wants to contest Kazembe in the Mashonaland Central Provincial Chairmanship elections which are soon to be held.

Fearing to lose the elections, Kazembe last week defied his President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s directive and coopted his lieutenants into his provincial executive committee so that they could help him rig the party’s pending Provincial Coordinating Committee.

Last month Zanu PF through its Acting National Political Commissar Patrick Chinamasa announced that no cooptions were to be made without the party’s authority.

But Kazembe last week went ahead and called for a Provincial Executive Committee meeting and coopted new members into the Provincial Executive, without notifying the party.

Kazembe is said to have unilaterally promoted one Tsine from Commisar to Vice Chairman and one Kararira to the position of a Commissar

The two co-opted members hail from Mt Darwin district where Makamba comes from. A party member who spoke on condition of anonymity said “Kazembe is trying to buy votes from Mt Darwin by heaping these posts and responsibilities on Mt Darwin. He is trying to neutralize James Makamba who is popular in the Mt Darwin district.”