Realign Govt with party policies

Kurai Prosper Masenyama
After the resounding majority win in the July 31 harmonised elections Zanu-PF has a clear unassailable dominance in Parliament as evidenced by the sailing through of the party’s nominees as Presiding officers in both Houses of Parliament. The President, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe, went on to cement this dominance by selecting an all-Zanu-PF Cabinet putting paid to misplaced hopes of opposition politicians who were dreaming of another free ride in Government.

While the political heads of Government departments are undeniably Zanu-PF who have no alternative but to implement the party’s policies in Government there remains a danger that all may not be smooth sailing on the administrative side of things. There is no guarantee that ordinary Government employees can implement a certain party’s policies with conviction if they do not support or never voted for that particular party.

Civil servants can hide behind the banner of professionalism and neutrality to avoid implementing policies of a given party whose values they do not subscribe to. In fact, in certain circumstances they can go a step further by actually sabotaging the plans and policies of certain political parties so that they reduce their political capital were those programmes to succeed.

However, more fundamentally and critically is the strong realisation that Government employees can make or break a party if there are no clear guidelines on their recruitment, performance, and monitoring by the ruling party.

To avert this paralysis of governance and contradictions, a number of political parties, the most prominent of which is the ANC of South Africa, have developed policies of cadre deployment through which competent party functionaries are deployed into strategic positions from where they implement and advance party policies for the undeniable benefit of ordinary citizens who would have voted that party into power based on the promise of implementing sound policies.

The matter of cadre employment came to the fore a few weeks ago when there was furore in South Africa when it emerged that the ANC headquarters’ officials played a critical role in vetting candidates for appointment to the SABC board. The party’s head of communications, Lindiwe Zulu, had to release a strongly worded statement in defence of the cadre deployment policy. A snap analysis among key political analysts in Zimbabwe revealed strong support for cadre deployment in Zimbabwe in parastatals, boards and other institutions running the affairs of the State and Goverment.

In moving the cadre deployment agenda we proceed to unpack what is “cadre” and how best can they be deployed first to the advantage of the ruling party, in this instance Zanu-PF and secondly for the benefit of the popular majority which overwhelmingly voted for the party on July 31.

The primary meaning of “cadre” according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary is “a basic unit especially of servicemen, forming a nucleus for expansion when necessary” secondarily, and perhaps with greater relevance “a group of activists in a communist or any revolutionary party” and “a member of such a group”.

In the context of this debate, a cadre is best defined as a loyal member of Zanu-PF who understands, appreciates and believes in its policies through and through. The appellation “cadre” can be traced back to the struggle for political independence where efficient party cadres drove the Zanu-PF war agenda with fierce loyalty and determination.

It should be clearly understood that there is a world of difference between an ordinary party supporter, member or even official and a cadre. Cadrehood comes through a process of political education, orientation and grooming. Thus, a cadre has to be committed, disciplined and fiercely loyal to the party and its principles.

Failure to push the party line will automatically lead to their recall or redeployment.
Cadre deployment is mainly associated with the Leninist principle of democratic centralism which commits every cadre to defending and implementing the will of the party. Using this strategy according to former ANC top strategist Joel Netshitenzhe, cadres should be deployed to all “centres of power” pushing a transformation agenda that extended “the power of the liberation movement over all levers of power, the army, the bureaucracy, intelligence structures, the judiciary, parastatals and agencies such as regulatory bodies, the public broadcaster and so on”.

In South Africa the ANC established national, provincial and local deployment committees to ensure that all cadres remained “informed by and accountable to the party leadership”. Following the above definition and clarification Zanu-PF has hundreds, if not thousands, of competent “cadres” ready to be deployed to push party policies across all levels of Government. We have cadres from the war era with solid revolutionary and professional credentials. We also have post-independence cadres the majority of whom have followed the party from their teens. We have university-educated cadres some of whom benefitted from the Presidential Scholarships in Cuba and South Africa.
We have cadre graduates of the National Youth Service.

Kurai Prosper Masenyama is the Zanu-PF Director for Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.