The Interview: All is well in Mashonaland West

This week, the ruling zanu-pf Secretary for Administration Cde Ignatius Chombo wrote to Mashonaland West Province announcing the nullification by the party’s Politburo of the purported vote of no confidence that had been engineered against Cdes Keith Guzah and Simbarashe Ziyambi (vice chairman and secretary for administration, respectively) while upholding the suspension of Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi from holding any position in the province for the next two years. The province has been a hotbed of factionalism for many years, but Cde Guzah (KG) tells our Political Editor Tichaona Zindoga (TZ) that the province must unite now and move forward with party and Government programmes

TZ: Another chapter in the fractious province of Mashonaland West, Cde Guzah, can you just put us into the frame of what has been happening in the province?

KG: First of all, this development is a confirmation of the dismissal of the votes of no confidence that had been purported to be passed by some elements in the province in July. The National Disciplinary Committee chaired by the Honourable Vice President Cde Phelekezela Mphoko made the decision, which was upheld by the Politburo sitting on the 9th of September. So, in essence I never stopped working as the vice-chairperson of Zanu-PF because I had not received information to that effect.

While it is important to understand that there is democracy in Zanu-PF, it is also important to acknowledge that the national disciplinary committee has got a mandate from the Politburo to hear each and every grievance emanating from every province. Having said that, what then transpired was an issue of vindication where the party itself has confirmed the mandate I was given to continue as the vice chairperson of the province and also as a member of the disciplinary committee of Mashonaland West province. That is the current position.

The secretary for administration, Simbarashe Ziyambi, was vindicated by the national disciplinary committee and the issue was upheld by the politburo sitting on the same day.

So in other words, we have continued to do our collective responsibilities within the party, moreso now when we have a restructuring exercise mandated to us by our national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere to ensure that our structures are in order and to make sure that all the documents that we have in our party headquarters are consistent with the numbers that we have in our cells, branches and our districts.

TZ: It would seem that your province is suffering from a hangover of the expulsion of Temba Mliswa because, really, there has not been any settling post-December 2014?

KG: What is happening in Mashonaland West Province must be understood in the context of an earthquake or a tremor. Where there is an earthquake, there are also tremors and an obvious scenario where one has to understand that the issue of Joice Mujuru and her cabal who were running the provinces created this invidious situation where now we had to cleanse and rinse our respective provinces of any and all, those that were subscribing to the notion of creating parallel structures within Zanu-PF.

But having said that again, it is important to understand that people should move forward. My mandate as given by the Politburo is to make sure that I confine myself to my position as the deputy chairperson, confine myself to the position of the chairperson of the disciplinary committee in order that we strengthen the party, in order that we make sure that the positions made by the politburo or that continue to be made by the politburo are founded on and are made available to the people in the party, Zanu-PF.

So it is incumbent upon myself that I make sure that people toe the party line. We do have a constitution in Zanu-PF; a constitution that must be followed to the letter. It is against this background that I will make sure that the fractitious environment obtaining in Mashonaland West will be curbed and that we will continue to maintain a strong political power base with the people, maintaining a cordial relationship with the people and at the same time remaining independent as a province to make sure that our provincial executive council comes up with programmes tailor-made for Mashonaland West Province without the interference of any other province.

TZ: But one could bet his bottom dollar that soon enough, maybe within a year, we will see more chaos from another quarter. What assurances can the people have that this will not happen?

KG: Yes, as the vice chairperson of the province and also the disciplinary chairperson, I think the mandate for us is very clear. We need to shape up our province. We need to align our policies with what the people demand. We need to make sure that we are receptive to the demands from the politburo. Once we have achieved that then it becomes possible for all of us to toe one party line. But what is equally important to understand is that there are people who will try to mess up things for the whole province.

That is a given proposition and scenario, but as a party which has been strengthened by His Excellency and by the Politburo, it is important for the Mashonaland West Province to understand clearly that there is one centre of power and that is His Excellency the First Secretary and President of Zanu-PF Cde Robert Mugabe, period! Anything outside that is what then creates this current position whereby one seems to look at things from an aided vantage point as opposed to seeing things the way they are given to us by our leadership. So it is important for the province now to make sure that we align our mindsets towards achieving one political goal that is the unification of the people of Mashonaland West Province through a well-crafted policy that comes from the Politburo.

TZ: What is happening in Mashonaland West Province could be seen as a microcosm of the national politics where people would construe politicians as fighting among themselves and never for the people. How would you respond to that?

KG: In every given organisation there are certain systems that need to be followed and adhered to and in this instance there were systems within Zanu-PF which need to be followed and adhered to and this is a result of Joice Mujuru having connived with other leaders to create a parallel structure, to create an organisation within an organisation in order to safeguard or create a putchist agenda for themselves. Now when this was revealed through our party structures, our party programmes, our party intelligence it therefore created this position where we are in now in saying “Who is who?” as we go forward.

Because remember what is really critical here is to ensure that we have one centre of power and that one centre of power is with President Mugabe who was endorsed by the Zanu-PF structures to stay as their First Secretary and President, furthermore the national itself in the 2013 plebiscite allowed His Excellency a mandate to run this country for the next five years until 2018. So this must be maintained. This status quo must be maintained. Whatever then comes out of His Excellency is what we then follow as a party.

TZ: Now there is some semblance of calm in the province, what now for Zim-Asset and other programmes in the province?

KG: I come from a background where I have agitated for a biased and transparent economic empowerment that favours the indigenous people of this country. It is a very clear position. So going forward, we should pursue the many plans that we had shelved because of the fractious nature of the political environment that was obtaining. And we also have a mandate to the people to make sure that we deliver as a party and also as the Honourable Member of Parliament for Hurungwe West constituency.

We are going to implement our indigenisation and empowerment programmes being led at the front by the provincial executive council. You must also understand that we have structures within the party that deal with each and every structure of our economy, just like at the Politburo level, we cascade those positions to provincial, district and branch levels, so it is against this position that we have many projects that we have initiated in the agricultural sector, in the mining sector, women’s programmes and youth programmes. These are programmes that we have initiated that were simply suspended so that we can put our house in order.

We must also take cognisance of the fact that our province houses the rural home of President Mugabe. Even though he is registered in Highfield, it must be understood that he is a member of the province. It must also be understood that the First Lady is also housed in Mashonaland West Province. The Secretary for Administration also hails from our province. So the importance of our province can never be overemphasised.

What needs to be done is to have a clear-cut policy with the provincial executive council to understand the gravity of what we do as a province. We need to remain united. We need to bring people to the party. We need to make sure that our programmes are consistent with what His Excellency the President pushes for.

It’s one thing to be dragged into factional politics and it’s another to respect President Mugabe speaking to us with wisdom as to how we should push the indigenisation and empowerment programmes. How we should make sure that our people benefit clearly from the policies of the party and Government. So it is important for us to capture just that aspect of our politics.