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Harare Bureau
ZANU-PF candidates that emerged victorious in primary elections must engage those they defeated and together map a winning strategy for the party in the forthcoming harmonised elections as this will prevent the Bhora Musango syndrome, President Mugabe said yesterday. He urged unity of purpose in Zanu-PF saying revolutionaries could never avoid each other.
Addressing the Central Committee meeting also attended by party candidates in Harare yesterday, the Zanu-PF First Secretary and President reiterated that he did not want to rule by decree and elections must be held on July 31.
President Mugabe said the party’s organs must play a key role in uniting candidates that won and those that lost in primary elections to ensure the Zanu- PF machine was well oiled and ready to register a resounding victory.
“The duty that we all have now and especially those of us who have won and been nominated to stand for the party is to ensure that those who opposed us will support us. You have to sit with them individually and talk. Work out a common strategy so that there is no Bhora Musango. Let us win them over. We must go into the election battle united,” he said.
President Mugabe appealed to Zanu-PF organs to also play a part in the unification process.
“Apart from individuals, our organs must now also assist the process of unity by appealing to those who lost to become supportive of those who won and support the national struggle. This election is a national struggle,” he said.
President Mugabe encouraged those candidates who were in better positions financially to assist those candidates in need.
“Let us also try as much as possible if we are in a better situation financially to assist those in situations of need…All of us must arouse the people’s revolutionary enthusiasm which I noticed from the queues we had (during primaries). Get as many people to vote as possible. Every one of our voters must go and mark properly his or her X on the candidates that we are sponsoring to win,” he said.
President Mugabe congratulated Zanu-PF for successfully and peacefully holding primary elections.
“Congratulations for a job well done. I knew we could do it. I knew we could get back to what we were — the makers of a revolution, the makers of a struggle and the creators of Zimbabwe. Be united for unity has always been the calling of the leadership, the leadership present, the leadership past. Let us unite. Unity is our strength. We unite for a purpose. True, as people with one destiny we cannot avoid each other. We are members of this wonderful country we have christened Zimbabwe and so wherever we are, we talk Zimbabwe, we sleep and dream Zimbabwe. When we wake up it is Zimbabwe that says good morning…”
President Mugabe reiterated that the country must go for elections on July 31 as he did not want to rule by decree and castigated the MDC formations for seeking a delay of the polls.
“I understand those belonging to opposition parties will be arguing today (yesterday) in the Constitutional Court that the date of elections as announced in the proclamation was wrongly done. It is too soon we need more time. They need more time for something else because all the parties that count have been very busy choosing their own members, doing nomination. To talk of more time, for what?”
He dismissed the argument that people needed more time to register as voters saying voter registration did not require a long period of time to be done.
“Anywhere, we hope the decision of the court would be to maintain the 31st (July). We are not seeing any basis for postponing elections. Vanhu vane ndangariro dzakasiyana siyana ne n’anga dzinobva dzawanda mukaita ikezvino munoruza …but elections do not go that way. It is your fate as decided by the people and you do not postpone elections for selfish reasons,” President Mugabe said.
He said the term of Parliament ended on June 29 adding, “We could not get a coffin for it (Parliament) because it does not exist. We need a Parliament that makes law. At the moment it is the President who can decree. I do not want decrees. It is not a very nice way of making laws”.
President Mugabe reiterated the need for Zanu-PF to ensure a resounding victory in the harmonised elections saying the party went into an inclusive Government with incompatible political partners because it did not perform well in the 2008 elections, a scenario he said must be avoided this time around.
He, however, noted that the inclusive Government was a strategic retreat for Zanu-PF.
“Yes, we have had four and half years , going to be five years perhaps, of this ugly creature — the global national union or inclusive Government that we went into because we had slept and missed our revolutionary step … A disastrous fall. It was a sudden one from which we rose and looked around and said the time demands that we use tactics. Some might not have understood us but revolutionaries when they suffer a reversal they do not call it defeat. It was time for us to reflect and assess the mistake we made along the way and try to win as much support as possible. It was time for us to walk cautiously … All this after humiliation of having to work with those who never believed in the ideals of the revolutionary struggle. If you are to supper with the devil you must have a long spoon. We had a very long spoon indeed and we knew how to use it to feed ourselves,” President Mugabe said.
He said while in the inclusive Government Zanu-PF remained united and did not sacrifice its people centred principles as it was the people that supported the liberation war that brought independence.
President Mugabe said the inclusive Government was a well calculated Zanu-PF political strategy.
“We needed a strategy and it was that strategy that saw us work with those who did not believe in our ideals and objectives. These principles are sacrosanct we do not surrender them. The land is ours we can never surrender it or let it go back in the hands of the enemy. Natural resources are part of the land.”
Online Reporter