The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Acting News Editor
THE Zanu-PF 18th Annual National People’s Conference has come and gone with resolutions that identify with the aspirations, needs and interests of the masses.
All the right resolutions were made and one hopes they will be implemented in accordance with shifting economic priorities and interests of the grassroots.
If implemented properly, the resolutions will ensure that even the poor will no longer worry about food, clothing, transport, basic medical care, housing and education of their children.
President Mnangagwa was endorsed as the party’s presidential candidate for 2023 and is expected to stamp his unique prerogative by acting in favour of the downtrodden majority so that the ruling party wins the poll resoundingly.
President Mnangagwa’s pledged to bring all those implicated in the audit report to book must be applauded by all and sundry. The cancer has been eroding the party’s support base in urban areas, Mutare, Rusape and Chipinge, included.
“I have since received the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the sale of urban State land, which revealed glaring excesses and acts of corruption by land barons and their cohorts.
“As a party, we will not accept a situation where our people live in squalid conditions 39 years after independence, as a result of being swindled out of their hard-earned money by these criminal elements.
“Those implicated in the commission report must be brought to book without fear or favour.
“We are a disciplined, principled and ethical party. We always advance the rights and interests of the majority of the people,” he said.
Zanu-PF should also move swiftly to weed out what the national chairman Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri described as corrupt elements operating inside the party and abusing the President’s name because there is no amount of resolutions, however impressive and brilliant, will work in an environment under siege from corruption, mismanagement of national resources, patronage, factionalism, complacency and impunity.
It is in the national interest that President Mnangagwa seizes himself with addressing the above manmade ills by empowering the Anti-Corruption Commission to a level where ordinary citizens feel protected and safe from improper treatment by abusers of authority at whatever level.
“Zanu-PF is the face of the nation, but there is too much indiscipline. Some are on the black market saying we are Zanu-PF, while others are invading mining claims in the name of the party. We need discipline so that we don’t drag our party’s name into disrepute.
“We have thieves hoarding basic commodities, they need to be monitored, we have thieves abusing inputs and selling them at high prices on the black market,” she said.
The best way forward for Zanu-PF is to treat all citizens equal before the law and in exploiting their immediate environment as its two most cherished weapons to remove inequality and injustice.
The call for a one voice culture in ZANU-PF is not new, and, remains noble. Zanu-PF must pick up the pieces and forge a united front to unite its supporters as this will transcend in the built-up of a strong support base.
The call for unity is absolutely essential, and though most politicians are incapable of trusting each other, intra-party conflicts must respect the democratic decisions and programmatic vision of the party.
Though participatory intra-party democracy implies that individual members should voice their views and that conflicts may occur time and again over differences in perceptions, personal rivalries for positions and influence, these should not blur President Mnangagwa’s vision for unity and economic recovery set at the just ended Goromonzi conference.
The call is noble because only a united ZANU-PF can be assured of a first place in the business of politics of the country.
World over, united smaller parties have thrived and by discord the greatest ones were destroyed.
Many voices and resultant divisions in ZANU-PF must be avoided if the revolutionary party is to be continually assured of première position in the politics of the land. This is the opportune time to for the party to embrace President Mnangagwa’s call for unity because divisions will continue to haunt ZANU-PF for as long as attitudes that foment distrust among its members are not tamed.
This is the time for ZANU-PF to stop fighting amongst itself and start to truly work together, for the good of the nation, as the electorate in 2023 will judge it on what it did to improve livelihoods and standards of living in the country, not what it had promised to do.
In a big organisation like ZANU-PF, conflicts are inevitable and legitimate, but must be argued out in a correct and responsible manner.
Dissent and bickering which exceed legal, constitutional and moral limits should not be tolerated.
As much as intra-party debates and controversies can be a demonstration of a vibrant party life, as election campaigns approach, the party should either solve or postpone its intra-party conflicts and present itself with a unified profile.
Unity is the way forward for a house divide within itself cannot stand.
Without unity of purpose, possible political and economic successes, as promised by the party at Goromonzi High, will evade the nation.
Thus, unity is an absolute necessity. Nothing should hinder the national harmony.
Unity promotes co-operation and opens opportunity to excellence and is crucial to lead the nation towards its progress and prosperity. It promotes peace and love in a nation. Where people are united, they can put efforts in elimination of vices like corruption.
Party officials from Manicaland said the party should be more united and tolerant of internal and external criticism to enhance internal participatory democracy and minimise internal disgruntlement within its rank and file while taking a radical stance against factionalism, unchecked ambition and indiscipline among other thorny problems affecting the revolutionary party.
Cde Kenneth Saruchera, the party’s provincial secretary for administration said President Mnangagwa has given the policy and strategic direction for all to follow.
“This should guide party activities, programmes and speeches. Essentially, the party is being asked to focus on the economy and production. People will judge us for what we would have done to them not what we would have said,” he said.
Makoni North MP Cde James Munetsi said the mere fact that Zanu-PF remains the ruling party since independence in 1980 demonstrates that its values and beliefs resonate with the majority.
“We must perfect past misdeeds, foster unity and frankness within our system. We do not want any among us to drag their feet; otherwise this struggle against the enemy will not be effective.
“The enemy is on the door, so we should bury the hatchet and confront our adversary as one united entity,” he said.
Cde Munetsi said the past mistakes have taught party cadres a lesson that a house divided within itself cannot stand.
