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DRAMA AS EX-MPS MANZI ZWANE, TIMOTHY MYENI DISQUALIFIED

By SIFISO DLAMINI | 2023-07-23

There was drama at Nhlambeni as constituents boycotted the nomination exercise after outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) Manzi Zwane was allegedly removed from the voters roll.

As the national elections kicked off with the nomination exercise yesterday, two of the pro-democracy MPs made the rounds on social media platforms as voters reacted in disbelief after the former politics were allegedly disqualified.

The other politician and self-confessed pro-democracy advocate who was also disqualified is former Nkilongo MP Timothy Myeni.

The other outgoing Members of Parliament who were vocal reported that all was well at their constituencies and reported that there were no interruptions during nominations.

Nhlambeni constituents decided to boycott the nominations in disbelief after they discovered that Zwane was not included in the voters roll.

Zwane, who was among the candidates contesting for the MP position, was allegedly removed from the voters roll for reasons unknown to the constituents, who reacted with anger. Members of the country’s security services were called to action as the disgruntled crowd became increasingly violent.

Information gathered by this publication was to the effect that the ex-+MP attempted to verify his registration electronically through the App provided by EBC and he discovered that his name did not appear in the voters roll.

Zwane is said to have assumed that he was registered because he received the SMS. However, things took a turn during nomination day as he was informed that his name was not included.

Zwane, who was not readily available for comment, is said to have assumed that he was registered and eligible to run for the elections. Much to his shock, he was informed that his name was not included in the voters roll, which caused his supporters to resolve boycotting the nominations exercise.

This resulted in uncertainty as the process was halted pending the verification of Zwane’s name. It was not determined if he made any further attempts to verify his details before the nominations exercise.

Meanwhile, outgoing Nkilongo MP Timothy Myeni's attempt to stop nominations at Mantabaneni under Lubulini Inkhundla proved futile after the High Court dismissed his case. Myeni had lodged an appeal at the High Court after his objection was also dismissed by EBC.

Information gathered was that Myeni was later disqualified to run for the elections as his attempts were unsuccessful.

Myeni, who is the outgoing Nkilongo MP, ran to the High Court in a last-ditch attempt to stop the nominations process at his former constituency Lubulini. Noteworthy was that on several occasions, Myeni indicated his desire to run for the elections once again at Lubulini, much to the amusement of his former colleagues who questioned why he kept mentioning Lubulini yet he was the elected Nkilongo MP. In his defence, Myeni mentioned that Lubulini was his original constituency and he had every right to stand for elections there.

It was further reported that the Lubulini constituents did not want Myeni to representing them in Parliament as their MP despite the fact that the vocal MP once represented the constituency in previous terms.

However last week, outgoing Lubulini MP, Minister of Economic Planning and Development Dr. Tambo Gina jokingly indicated his intention to run for the elections once again and dared all willing candidates to try their luck as he was certain that he would win the race.

When contacted, Myeni declined to comment, stating that the information required was already available on social media. “I do not see the benefit in me commenting on this matter, because it is already out there on social media,” said Myeni.

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