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WE applaud President Mugabe for pronouncing himself so clearly and unequivocally on the niggling issue of factionalism within the ruling Zanu-PF party. We also salute his frank take on the matter and hope that those that have been fingered as being the so-called factional leaders and divisive elements in the revolutionary party will desist from their ways and follow the wise counsel of the President.
For so long, the issue has gnawed at the very roots of the party, at times threatening to tear it apart and were it not for the leadership of Cde Mugabe, Zanu-PF would have imploded and allowed its enemies to find a way into power. A case in point is the run up to the March 2008 general elections where the party fared very badly. Due to unbridled ambition and hunger for power, some elements within the vanguard party were, in collusion with the Mavambo/Dawn/Kusile movement led by Dr Simba Makoni, working against Zanu-PF in a so-called Bhora mudondo campaign.
People were being told to vote for a Zanu-PF candidate in council and parliamentary seats but to vote for whoever they wanted in the presidential election. As a result, in some constituencies, President Mugabe scored lowly only for his party’s parliamentary candidate to record impressive numbers raising eyebrows. Such was the damage wraught by this ill-advised campaign that Cde Mugabe narrowly lost the poll to Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change. This was a rude awakening for the party which immediately launched into a restructuring exercise during the period between 2008 and 2013.
The resounding victory scored in last year’s harmonised elections was a result of painstaking work and unity of purpose as the party saw the futility of divisions and factionalism. Sadly, that ugly phenomenon is rearing its ugly head yet again.
In an interview with ZBC to mark his 90th birthday which aired last night, President Mugabe said senior leaders angling to succeed him risk expulsion from the party if they continue fanning factionalism at the expense of delivering to the electorate. Cde Mugabe said no individual was bigger than the party and his retirement was not yet due. He said it was “terrible even to have your name mentioned as leader of a faction. It is shameful.”
The President’s remarks came in the wake of reports of serious jockeying among factions in Zanu-PF purportedly led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Secretary for Legal Affairs Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed him.
Cdes Mujuru and Mnangagwa deny leading factions. The President also slammed senior party members who promote regionalism and tribalism by imposing themselves as provincial godfathers ahead of the party’s provincial chairpersons. “That is what we are fighting against and I am going to fight against this one quite blatantly because that is what is destroying the party,” he said.
“The party is greater than any individual and it is wrong — completely wrong tactics and wrong system that recognises those of us who are in the executive of the party, the Politburo, Central Committee, to still have the right to be leaders of provinces.
“Ndini mukuru. Mukuru kuManicaland ndiyani? Mukuru kuprovince iyi ndiyani and all that is nonsensical and rubbish! That is what is destroying the party. Once wada hukuru hwekuprovince ikoko vamwe vanozotsvagawo kuda hukuru hwekumaprovince avo. That is regionalism now that you are creating. You are a national leader, remain a national leader. Kwete kuzoti ndiri mukuru kuprovince. KuProvince we have provincial chairmen. They will respect you if you come from that province yes, but kwete kuti ndiwe politically wamukuru ikoko aiwa.
“There is a contradiction. In fact it is not like that in the party constitution. The chairpersons of the provinces must be the bosses of the provinces and not national leaders in the Politburo and those must cease to be leaders of provinces immediately.
“Anyone who purports to be a leader of a province then must forfeit his leadership of the party. That is a serious matter now. You have members of the Politburo wanting to detect and determine the direction of political events in the provinces where you have already a provincial leadership that must do so and all we have said in the party is that members of the executive of the party in the Politburo, those in the Central Committee, those in Parliament can meet together with the provincial leadership in what we call a coordinating committee.
“The chairperson of that meeting is the provincial chairperson. He will preside over it and must not be dictated to, but you have gurus of the provinces, you see, who want to wield a dip stick. No. That is wrong.”
We concur with the President that factionalism is cancer that divides the party. Leaders should seek to fulfill the desires and aspirations of people from all 10 provinces and not be preoccupied with seeking power at all costs.
Zanu-PF is in a great position to extend its mandate by another five years in the 2018 general elections given the sorry state of its main opposition party — the MDC-T. It should not shoot itself in the foot by engaging in destructive factional fights that could tear it apart. We therefore implore Zanu-PF cadres to heed the President’s wise counsel and shun factionalism.
Online Reporter