Sodomy poser for Zanu PF Senate hopeful

The forthcoming harmonised elections have drawn
unprecedented interest from aspiring candidates, all promising to work to
improve the lot of Zimbabweans.

But a look at the list of aspiring candidates, including those from
Zanu PF, reveals that a number of them have skeletons in their cabinets
which might cause the electorate to be wary.

Some of them were convicted of crimes involving dishonesty, while
others have allegations of serious offences, such as rape, hanging over
them.

But one candidate whose record might leave Zanu PF leaders, including
President Robert Mugabe, with egg on their faces, is Bill Tshuma who is
seeking to represent the ruling party in the Gwabalanda Senatorial seat.

On 27 January 2004, Tshuma was convicted of attempted sodomy. Court
records show he tried his luck on a 23-year-old Harare man he had lured from
a local supermarket with the promise of a job.

Tshuma tricked the desperate man to accompany him to Aisbley Farm,
owned by the city council, which he claimed was his.

On arrival at the farm, he told the man that he was "handsome and
gorgeous".

He also told the terrified man to fondle him in order to arouse his
feelings. He proceeded to kiss the man, according to the court records.

After a short trial the magistrate found Tshuma, who could become a
Zanu PF senator, guilty of trying to sodomise his victim and fined him $20
000 or 30 days in prison.

Mugabe describes homosexuals as "worse than pigs and dogs". He also
accuses his enemies in the West of being "gay gangsters" bent on effecting
legal regime change in Zimbabwe.

Constitutional expert, Lovemore Madhuku said Zimbabwean law does not
bar anyone with a criminal conviction from standing for political office.

But he added it was up to political parties, as private organisations,
to set specific parameters on the type of candidates they wanted to send to
Parliament.

"Perhaps it is his opponents who could use the conviction against him
to say, 'Don't vote for that man because he was convicted of this and that',"
Madhuku said.

In 2002, Mugabe made political capital out of an incident in which the
late MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, killed his wife before subsequently
committing suicide in prison.

He said Zimbabweans could not entrust their future into the hands of
violent leaders.

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