Despite the MDC unity pact,the imposition of losing MDC candidates and MDC heavy weights Welshman Ncube,Gibson Sibanda and Paul Themba Nyathi,in the looming by-elections in Redcliff,Gwanda and Pelandaba-Mpopoma is being heavily resisted by MDC-Tsvangirai candidates.

Samuel Sandla Khumalo,the MDC-Tsvangirai candidate for Pelandaba-Mpopoma,told Metro this morning that he is not stepping down as he was chosen by the people.

“I don’t know where those reports are coming from,as far as I am concerned I am the candidate for MDC -Tsvangirai,anything else is just speculation.”

The Independent reported this week that Vice President Gibson Sibanda will instead stand in Pelandaba-Mpopoma in place of the Tsvangirai candidate,the replacements will also be repeated in Gwanda for Nyathi and Redcliff where Welshman Ncube is reportedly eyeing.

Tapera Sengweni and Nephat Mdlongwa won MDC-Tsvangirai primaries in Redcliff and Gwanda South respectively.

But Khumalo poured water over the report,”Those spreading those rumours are just desperate to get back to Parliament,I will represent MDC-Tsvangirai in the by-election.”

The Pelandaba-Mpopoma by-election follows the death of incumbent MP MDC Milton Gwetu,he will fight it out with information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu who lost a re-election bid twice in 2000 and 2005.

MDC -Tsvangirai sweep all House of Assembly seats in the second largest City,all but one in the Senate and swept the Bulawayo City Council elections as it won 23 of the 29 seats, the Arthur Mutambara faction, which previously held 18 seats, walked
away with six. Thirteen sitting councillors lost their seats.The new councillors will be electing a mayor and his deputy soon.

Khumalo is a two term councillor for ward 13.Three years ago his dreadlocks once reached down to his chest. All that remains of them now are prickly halos of hair that surround several centimeters of split, swollen scalp.

The 45-year-old was among the first to arrive in 2003 outside then governor Obert Mpofu’s office in Mhlahlandlela in Bulawayo for a peaceful protest against high cost of living. Several dozen demonstrators had barely begun to gather when police charged the crowd.

Khumalo received two cracks to the head before police officers dragged him by his dreadlocks for nearly a kilometer, until they reached a police station where they thrashed him with their batons and ripped out his matted tresses with their bare hands. Khumalo and two other protesters were then blindfolded and driven 20 km out of town, beaten again and dumped in the bush.

Khumalo’s ordeal is just one skirmish in President Robert Mugabe’s war on dissent. Over the past six weeks, Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF is being accused of killing 30 MDC supporters and a union leader said 40 000 farmworkers and their dependants had been made homeless.

The Central Intelligence Organization, is reported to have seized X-rays and medical reports from state hospitals to suppress evidence of assaults.