Online Reporter
Zimpapers Writers
ZANU-PF Secretary-General, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, has highlighted the importance of integrity, ideological clarity and innovation in guiding both the party and Government programmes, saying principled leadership is critical to sustaining the revolutionary mandate of the ruling party.
Adv Mudenda was speaking at the inaugural Zanu-PF seminar for Central Committee members held at the Winery Convention Centre in Gweru yesterday.
He said the Central Committee plays a pivotal role in shaping policy direction, ensuring alignment with the party’s revolutionary ethos and advancing national development priorities.
Effective leadership, Adv Mudenda said, must be anchored on humility, honesty and accountability, urging party leaders to strike a careful balance between party supremacy, constitutional governance and national development goals.
Adv Mudenda said the Central Committee, as the principal heart of the revolutionary party’s mandate, bears the onerous responsibility of leading Zanu-PF between congresses.
“Your leadership, both individually and collectively, demands that you lead the party ideologically and administratively, while demonstrating strategic leadership capacities that will keep the Party firmly on its revolutionary trajectory,” he said.
Adv Mudenda said the committee’s responsibilities include policy formulation, strategic oversight and ensuring that party programmes are translated into tangible outcomes that improve the lives of citizens.
He stressed the need for anticipatory and decisive leadership, calling on members to ensure that agreed programmes are implemented consistently and without fear or favour across all party structures.
Adv Mudenda noted that the Central Committee, as a collective, must demonstrate resolute and decisive leadership, leadership that is firmly committed to the diligent and disciplined implementation of agreed programmes.
He said members are expected to exhibit principled leadership, ensuring that party programmes are executed consistently and without fear or favour across all Zanu-PF structures.
“This calls for bold, determined and courageous leadership, characterised by constant supervision, oversight, and a proactive drive to ensure that decisions of the party are fully implemented,” said Adv Mudenda
“Accordingly, your leadership must be vision-driven and apostolic in character, anchored in the party’s enduring vision that it should forever remain the mass revolutionary socialist party in the empowerment process and emancipation of the people of Zimbabwe from all forms of oppression.”
Adv Mudenda said in implementing its programmes, the Central Committee must equally be guided by Zanu-PF’s mission, which commits the movement “to maintain total ownership and control of the modes of production, equitable distribution of the means of production and natural resources, and to defend national sovereignty through policies of indigenisation, empowerment, and wealth creation, to sustain Zimbabwe’s independence and ensure that we remain masters of our own destiny.”
“This defines the central responsibility of the Central Committee as a collective organ of leaders who share, without apology, the party’s vision and mission. Such responsibility demands unwavering and indefatigable leadership from each member,” he said.
“You are, therefore, called upon to carry this burden with conviction, discipline and clarity of purpose.”
Adv Mudenda said it is in this context that the seminar has been deliberately structured to produce a reinvigorated and forward-looking Central Committee.
Notably, he said the inclusion of a session on mapping Vision 2050 beyond Vision 2030 is intended to ensure that members are not only leaders of today but strategic thinkers capable of rising beyond immediate time horizons and engaging effectively within the evolving terrain of global politics.
“Central Committee members, therefore, ought to possess certain attributes necessary to execute their constitutional and political responsibilities effectively for the betterment of the running of the party and its Government,” said Adv Mudenda.
“These attributes include a thorough understanding of the party constitution, mastery of the National Constitution, and proficiency in appreciating the art of statecraft.’
Adv Mudenda added that Central Committee members must possess personal tenets such as integrity and discipline.
“This enables them to navigate complex political, social and governance challenges with wisdom, foresight and strategic intent while at the same time effectively leading, supervising Government programmes, guiding policy formulation, as well as providing direction to the overall party structures,” he said.
Citing Article 7, Section 39 of the party constitution, Adv Mudenda said the Central Committee is mandated to implement resolutions adopted by Congress and the National Annual People’s Conferences, while guiding and supervising Government programmes to ensure alignment with party policy.
“In exercising this authority, the Central Committee is expressly empowered to issue binding directives, convene Congress in both ordinary and extraordinary sessions, and discharge its responsibilities in strict adherence to the principles of Party supremacy, collective leadership, discipline, and accountability,” he said.
Adv Mudenda said that although the Central Committee formally meets four times a year, it functions as a continuous policy-making and supervisory organ, with its Standing Committees serving as the technical and operational engines of its work.
