Online Reporter
Ishmael Mada
WE have high expectations for the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology this year. We started our work for the year on January 19, after a month-long holiday break.
This year, our schedule is packed, organised into quarters.
In the first quarter, our primary focus will be to review our work from 2025. We will incorporate feedback from our clients to revisit our modules and make necessary improvements based on their input.
Additionally, we will also review the cadre development module during this quarter. Also, we will conduct a review of the cadre development module during this first quarter.
The objective of this one is to create a servant leader with integrity, one who is patriotic, loyal, honest, persistent, consistent and perseveres in the educational course.
We aim to create a 90-day cadre development programme that will be examinable. A certificate will only be issued upon successful completion.
Those who do not pass will not receive a certificate. If you fail, it’s unfortunate.
So, we will go on a retreat to come up with the syllabus for that course.
Additionally, we will be conducting strategic workshops for the leadership in the party. That is coming this February.
We have workshops for the Central Committee members. We have a strategic workshop for Politburo members.
Then we have ongoing capacitation workshops for State enterprises. This is a work in progress. We are continuing with this. This will run throughout the year until we are done with all of them.
During the second quarter, we will be seized with the capacitation on training of the trainer. We want to extend our reach to the citizens of Zimbabwe by way of employing others to do the work for us.
Let’s take an example of the religious sects. We will approach the leadership of those sects and ask them to provide us with those whom we can train.
We will train those, and then we send them back to their church, where they will then handle issues related to their congregants. They will be doing the work for us.
We will do the same with those in the education sector. During the second quarter, we will be seized with the curriculum development unit of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to complete what we started last year.
We want to infuse our syllabus into the curriculum system of our education so that we start with heritage-based education, Education 5.0.
We want our syllabus infused into the heritage registration of the Ministry. What we will do is we will just escalate it level by level. It will start from kindergarten up to the tertiary level.
Then for the third quarter, it will be again capacitation of our clients.
For example, we have got clients that are perennial security and defence force members. When they do their training, they always incorporate us, so we go in and assist them.
In the third quarter of the year, before their trainees graduate, the school goes in to impart ideology on those new intakes.
Those are within our basket. We will continuously engage them.
We have an agreement with the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training that before each intake, graduates from their training institutions come and our school will have an opportunity to impart ideological clarity to the youths undergoing training.
In the last quarter, we will be engaging and rounding up the year’s programmes.
I would like to highlight that we have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania.
This MOU outlines several collaborative tasks that we are expected to undertake together throughout the year.
It is an important part of our annual agenda and we will focus on these activities during the review period.
We are in the process of establishing a unit within our Department of Research. This unit will collaborate with resource specialists from various higher education institutions and other organisations involved in research.
When parties or Government entities require assistance in gathering evidence or data for decision-making, they will approach us with their assignments.
Our Director of Research will then assign these tasks to the appropriate higher education institutions, along with a budget.
Once funding is provided, the institutions will conduct their research and the findings will be presented to the relevant authorities for informed decision-making.
Over the past year, the education division has seen substantial growth, nearing 70 000 participants.
We continue to offer basic orientation sessions, where we issue certificates of attendance.
The demand for these sessions remains high, with students attending in large numbers.
Currently, we are fully booked, including weekends, and we are having to stagger sessions.
While I don’t have exact current figures, our clientele is expanding rapidly, with increasing interest from both the private sector and corporate entities.
For instance, I have an application on my desk from a bank seeking capacity-building support from our institution.
This growing interest from clients indicates strong demand for our services.
On Party members who deviate from party ethos
That is what we call ideological bankruptcy. You know, the misuse of public platforms and social media is often employed to pursue agenda-setting by adversaries, aiming to create division within the party
Those people are bankrupt in terms of ideology.
Our advice to the party is that all elected leaders should go through the School of Ideology, ensuring they are well-grounded in our guiding principles.
While some individuals may possess certain characteristics, many pursuing this agenda lack a solid understanding of our ideology.
We encourage the party to engage us in the school and to bring these individuals to us, so we can assist them in their ideological development.
The Government recently launched the National Development Strategy 2, a five-year plan which will run until 2030.
NDS2 builds upon the foundation laid by the NDS1, which spanned January 2021 to December 2025.
Together, these two medium-term plans form the backbone of Zimbabwe’s path towards becoming an upper middle-income society by 2030.
This is a vision that requires not only sound policy direction, but also the collective patience, trust and participation of all citizens.
My message to Zimbabweans is that we have a very clear vision, as enunciated by President Mnangagwa, that is Vision 2030.
For stakeholders to engage meaningfully in the NDS2, each has a specific role to play.
This role is detailed in the framework for 2026 to 2030, aiming to elevate our society to upper-middle-income status.
As the School of Ideology, we are dedicated to helping the citizens of Zimbabwe connect with this vision and actively participate in nation-building.
This can be achieved only by those who have a clear ideological understanding.
Therefore, our school is at your service, ready to assist as we work together to build our nation.
In terms of engaging with the diaspora community, starting from this first quarter, we will be conducting online lessons for our combatants in the diaspora.
Cde Mada is the Principal of the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology and a member of the ZANU PF Politburo. He was speaking to Zimpapers Politics Hub senior reporter Joseph Madzimure.
