19/12/2025
Is Cde Tungwarara a Bona Fide Zanu PF Member, Registered Voter?
Questions continue to swirl around the attempted elevation of businessman, Paul Tempter Tungwarara into Zanu PF’s powerful Central Committee, amid claims that he may neither be a registered voter nor a bona fide member of the ruling party.
Tungwarara was recently nominated by Manicaland province to fill a vacancy in the Central Committee. However, the nomination was subsequently nullified by Zanu PF National Commissar Munyaradzi Machacha, who ruled that the vacant post should be filled by a cadre from Chipinge, where the vacancy arose.
Following Machacha’s decision, speculation emerged suggesting that prominent Zanu PF benefactor Kudakwashe Tagwirei may have influenced the nullification, although the reasons for such alleged intervention remain unclear.
As debate over Tungwarara’s political standing intensifies, a senior Zanu PF source has raised further concerns, alleging that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s investment adviser is not a registered voter and does not belong to any recognised party cell or branch structure.
“The party should tell the nation which cell or branch Tungwarara belongs to. In 2023, he was just a businessman operating outside party structures,” the source said.
According to the source, Tungwarara’s visible political involvement only began after he facilitated meetings between the President and a United Arab Emirates-based investor linked to the proposed cyber city project.
Adding weight to the claims, Buhera South legislator Tafadzwa Mugwadi appeared to question Tungwarara’s party credentials in a Facebook post, suggesting that his ambitions were misplaced.
“Worse when you are aiming at people, comrades and cadres who sweated for the 2018 and 2023 victories in your absence from both the ballot and the party,” Mugwadi wrote.
With doubts mounting, critics argue that the burden now rests on Tungwarara to publicly demonstrate that he is a registered voter and a legitimate member of Zanu PF, particularly as he seeks a seat in one of the party’s most influential decision-making organ.
