Published: 11 June 2018

HIS bodyguard-turned-podium is now sweating profusely as the Kwekwe Central MP and former Zanu-PF member, Masango "Blackman" Matambanadzo, keeps extending his speech during a National Patriotic Front (NPF) campaign rally at Kwekwe's Mbizo 4 shopping centre, on Saturday.

With the election dates drawing closer, Matambanadzo and fellow NPF candidates have upped their antes, as they seek to make inroads in constituencies formerly regarded as Zanu-PF and MDC-T strongholds.

The former Zanu-PF Kwekwe Central MP was drumming up support for the NPF's parliamentary candidate Tongai Chinhava, who has set his eyes on Mbizo constituency.

Famed for his public admission that he is the least educated parliamentarian but with brains, Blackman has continued to illuminate Kwekwe with his political exploits after resigning from the ruling party to join the former President Robert Mugabe-backed NPF.

The proud "Grade 2 dropout" even brags of being wiser than "learned politicians" such as Zanu-PF leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"Mnangagwa went to school to learn law, but I am a natural lawyer," Matambanadzo said, to wild cheers from his supporters.

"We have to vote this liar (Mnangagwa) out on July 30. He is cruel and the people of Kwekwe know that and that has been the reason why they voted for an opposition candidate, Blessing Chebundo (MDC-T)," he shouted.

"He (Mnangagwa) has been violent and you taught him a lesson and we should repeat it now."

For close to 30 minutes on one of his bodyguards' shoulders, Matambanadzo chronicled his life in Zanu-PF, claiming he was always made to live a life of an outcast by Mnangagwa and his backers, who did not like him and had always tried to isolate him.

"That is why I resigned. I was not chased away from Zanu-PF. They always told people not to work with me. They tried to kill me several times. I was involved in four serious accidents, but thank God, I am alive," he said.

Matambanadzo blasted Mnangagwa for conniving with Mugabe to run down the economy over the past 37 years during the time the two were bosom buddies.

"Where was he when the economy was being destroyed? Wasn't he Mugabe's deputy? All he was plotting was how to take over power from his boss. What a disrespectful man.

He was brought back into the country by Mugabe from Zambia and he even initially refused, but he wants to tell us today that he is the father of the revolution, what a liar." 
- newsday