Lovemore Ranga Mataire 
The internal fights playing out in Zanu-PF are symptomatic of serious under-currents that have long festered as the revolutionary party grapples with the critical tasks of delivering on its electoral promises.More than any other time in its history, Zanu-PF is in urgent need of a generational conversation that seeks to establish common ground and glue together multifarious stakeholders who seem to have become increasingly distanced from each other on how the party can be remodelled to meet changing demands.

While it is given that the life of any revolutionary movement is defined by its ability to continue attracting new membership through an enduring ideological framework, Zanu-PF seems to have slackened on a rigorous orientation process that was the hallmark of its sustainability during the liberation struggle.

Political orientation was critical during the war to the extent that a cadre could only graduate from being a raw recruit, to training with makeshift guns, training with actual guns and being deployed to the front only after grasping the tenets of the revolutionary party, including the purpose of the war.

In the post-Independence dispensation, Zanu-PF should have maintained the same vigilance, particularly for those aspiring for leadership positions. Of course, military approaches had to be re-engineered to suit post-war dynamics. The re-engineering should have ensured that new members were not only educated on the party’s constitution, but also have a full appreciation of its ideological thrust and culture, and have absolute respect and allegiance to the hierarchical order.

It goes without saying that despite its current massive support base, Zanu-PF risks blighting its stupendous electoral record by accepting within its ranks people who are not only contemptuous of the party’s culture and hierarchical order, but also seek to introduce a new brand of politics that is not in tandem with the revolutionary party’s tried and tested way of doing things.

As a result, the party faces four critical challenges. The first, as already touched on, concerns absorption of new members into the Zanu-PF rank and file in the post-liberation period.

New members, particularly those aspiring for leadership positions at whatever level, need to have a deep understanding of Zanu-PF’s ideological principles before they can be cleared to contest in any election.

The absence of a rigorous foundational induction or orientation strategy has over the years resulted in some members failing to entrench themselves within the party’s belief system and, therefore, becoming easy instruments for manipulation and destabilisation.

The majority of such comrades exhibit serious hedonistic tendencies driven by lack of understanding and appreciation of the party’s ideology. The second issue is that it has become apparent that over the years that some within the revolutionary party are primarily motivated to support or pretend to support Zanu-PF to fulfill selfish ends as reflected in manifestation of a patronage system that marginalises ordinary, genuine cadres.

The patronage system has created the idea that you are either with or against us and has had serious destabilising effects, manifesting in the so-called Lacoste and G40 factions. The third issue needing urgent address concerns some senior party members who over the years have misconstrued President Mugabe’s magnanimous nature as weakness, thus creating their own fiefdoms to a point of being too cosy with delegated power.

It is regrettable that such leaders lack the basic understanding that real power resides in the one who appoints. The fourth issue that calls for urgent redress concerns the contagion effect of that the tussle for power and control has on critical institutions of State governance; with some public officials and civil servants replicating the politicians hedonistic tendencies by executing duties along factional lines.

At the centre of these fault lines lies the disconnect between old and new members, whose views on how the party must be carried forward seem to be diametrically at odds. In general, the fault lines manifest in the disconnect between the party’s commissariat department and other critical stakeholders, who include sections of the war veterans – some still serving in the military and others retired.

That war veterans are an integral facet of the party can never be overstated. However, mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that the veterans dynamically re-align themselves to provide the ideological fulcrum and stamina the post-war membership requires.

Pertinent to Zanu-PF’s survival and growth is a serious generational conversation. The apparent glaring disconnect between younger members and older members needs to fixed for a non-antagonistic outcome.

It is a demographic truism of our time that the younger general membership constitute the majority while the ex-fighters and veterans of the party are diminishing in numbers.

The two groups need to complement each other instead of being perennially at odds. The old guard needs to appreciate the need for continuity and that it is the post-Independence membership that bears the responsibility of ensuring the liberation ethos is not sacrificed on the altar of expedience.

Re-alignment of all critical facets is essential to giving much-needed impetus to fulfillment of liberation aspirations. I hope that the commissariat department is alive to the reality that imposition of election candidates is an affront not just to the practice of internal democracy, but to the electorate as well.

The department need to address this issue with sincerity given allegations that the defeated Zanu-PF Norton by-election candidate was brazenly imposed. The brand of materialist politics being championed by some members marks the unsavoury departure from Zanu-PF’s tried and tested winning ideology.

The commissariat department must never allow politics of personality to get the better of politics of principle and ideology. There is need to change tact otherwise those in the commissariat department may, after 2018, have to carry the cross of having eroded the revolutionary party’s support base.

Elections are won foremost through focused mobilisation programmes that seek to sustainably win the hearts and minds of the people to your cause. It must also be noted that given the Norton debacle, war veterans are still an important component of any winning strategy due to their experience in mobilisation. Self-centred youth politics, without the ideological guidance of the old guard, cannot win over the broad electorate.

Thus the revival of the Chitepo Ideological College is one way of dealing with the disconnect that appears to have festered between the old and young membership. However, attending the Chitepo Ideological College must not be a mere rite of passage into leadership. Some of the people who consummated the idea are still alive and these are the ones who must articulate its foundational vision in line with post-war dynamics.

In summation, Zanu-PF needs to address fundamental issues of governance and undertake serious introspection. It cannot be business as usual and the December Conference in Masvingo must surgically dissect all the issues affecting the party, including corruption, and give direction and add new impetus in carrying forward the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.