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Zanu-PF Bulawayo Province is the revolutionary party’s worst performer. In all the elections held since 2000, the party has not won a seat or ward in the city. The only instance when Zanu-PF won a seat was in the senatorial elections of November 2005 which the MDC-T, the ruling party’s bogey in Bulawayo, boycotted.
Whereas Zanu-PF had been struggling electorally in urban areas over the past 15 years, it has made commendable inroads in Harare, Gweru, Mutare, Masvingo, Kwekwe, Chinhoyi, Victoria Falls, Marondera, and Gwanda. In Harare, the party won six constituencies and some wards in the July 2013 elections. In Masvingo, Gwanda and Marondera Zanu-PF swept all.
Bulawayo has remained in opposition hands despite Zanu-PF’s all-round national recovery.
Many reasons have been cited for this situation. When he was picked to chair the province a few years ago, Professor Callistus Ndlovu blamed divisions on the basis of tribe and history. He suggested that there was, or is, conflict between Shona and Ndebele members in the province and also that some still identify themselves as Zapu, others Zanu despite the fact that both parties came together when they signed the Unity Accord in December 1987.
The Politburo has castigated the provincial leadership for disunity and lethargy. Bulawayo is one of the party’s provinces where the cell – Zanu-PF’s smallest, but most important structure to which every party member belongs — only exists on paper.
In the city at the weekend to launch a provincial restructuring exercise, Politburo secretary for legal affairs, Cde Patrick Chinamasa said:
“I believe that one of the major problems that the party is facing in Bulawayo is the existence of divisions. If you can’t unite and work together, you’re simply undermining yourselves. I want to emphasise the importance of working together for the benefit of the party. We expelled senior party officials from different provinces including Bulawayo and this obviously means that we still have party members who used to work with these people.
“I want to warn party members against victimising these people because that is not politics. Vendetta victimisation doesn’t work in our party. That’s not politics. As we move on, we’ll be each other’s keepers. Let’s learn to forgive one another, reconcile and work together for the benefit of the party and the nation.”
He expressed concern at the slow pace of the restructuring programme in Bulawayo.
“We want to rejuvenate the party structures and meet the demands of the next five years,” he added.
“I’m afraid that Bulawayo province still has a lot of work to do in terms of strengthening the province, especially at cell level. Cells are vital because they’re the foundation of the party and they determine the strength of the structures. Branches and districts are just an icing on the cake.”
In January, Politburo secretary for the commissariat, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, also had no kind words for the provincial leadership.
He said he was baffled that the province claiming to have 112 wards only garnered 20,000 votes in the 2013 harmonised elections.
“You say you have 112 structures. Now we want to know if they are real. You must start working together. Enough is enough, we have been under the yoke of MDC-T for too long and we must be ready for the task to win back our seats,” said Cde Kasukuwere.
Even President Mugabe has publicly voiced his concern over divisions in Bulawayo where, he said, certain people were frustrated from holding posts in the party on the basis of who they are and what their origins are, regardless of how popular with the masses they can be.
There is no justification for the Bulawayo provincial leadership to continue playing second fiddle to MDC-T when the British backed formation is collapsing across the country, even in the other two Matabeleland provinces.
In the past, the provincial leaders cited purported public anger over the 1980s civil disturbances in the region as the reason for the party’s poor performance. That sounded true to some extent as the party was generally struggling in Matabeleland as a whole.
But with Zanu-PF winning all 13 National Assembly seats in Matabeleland South, President Mugabe getting some of his highest votes in the province in the March 2008 harmonised elections coupled with a good performance in Matabeleland North and showing its traditional strength in Midlands, the Bulawayo provincial chiefs’ pretext is now untenable.
The province must look itself in the mirror and ask itself if it is not putting the name of the party into disrepute by continuously losing when other provinces are recovering.
We implore the provincial structure to take the criticisms as an incentive for them to work harder. They must unite and diligently work for the party, not to pretend to be Zanu-PF by day and supping with Dumiso Dabengwa by night.
The whole country has ditched MDC-T; there is no reason why Bulawayo shouldn’t do likewise.
Online Reporter