By Staff Reporter

MDC Alliance incoming Member of Parliament Lloyd Mukapiko, a Redcliff Municipality council employee, trounced outgoing Local Government Minister July Moyo in Redcliff Constituency.

Mukapiko who is employed as a graveyard assistant by Redcliff Municipality said he is humbled by the support given by people of Redcliff.

“I am really humbled by the support which I have received from the people of Redcliff who have supported my parliamentary bid. I promise to represent the constituency to the best of my ability,” he said.

The youthful legislator has promised to be a listening MP, adding he would not be influenced by political affiliations since the development of Redcliff needed the participation of everyone.

Mukapiko has broken a Zanu PF stranglehold on the constituency since 2008.

He accused outgoing Zanu PF legislator Harris Ncube who was elected in 2013 after beating MDC youth president Happymore Chidziva of abandoning the constituency.

“I am coming from the people whom I identify with through their day-to-day struggles. Abandoning the constituency is like abandoning myself I will always stay with the people,” he said.

Humble background

Mukapiko said he sees nothing wrong with his current employment status at Redcliff Municipality as he is earning an honest living.

“I come from a very humble background. I have class two bricklaying course and I am also a boiler maker after g received training at Kaguvi Vocational Training Centre,” he said.

“At Redcliff municipality I was first employed as a pest controller when I joined the local authority in 2003. 

“I was the redeployed and I am now a graveyard assistant, where I assist people with burial records and allocate them burial places.

“People have been referring to me as an undertaker, but I don’t mind as I am helping to give people a dignified exit from the face of the earth compared to some of the leaders who are taking people’s lives by failing to give adequate services,” he said.

A church leader at the Church of Christ, Mukapiko said the people in Redcliff want a listening leader.

“People want to be listened to and that is going to be a compass of my leadership style which is going to see the constituency determine how the constituency development fund must be used. My leadership is going to be people oriented,” he said.

He said problems such as unemployment, a dilapidating health care system and, poor sewer reticulation, inaccessibility of water and general infrastructural decay would be his priority.

Meanwhile, MDC Alliance has made a clean sweep of all the nine Redcliff Municipality council seats.