Chronicle Editor
Obert Moses Mpofu
Why go to Congress?
Once again, the seventh ZANU PF Congress reassigns us back to the party’s founding inclination to democracy and consultation anchored principles of leadership. The congress re-gestures the Party’s commitment to dialogue. The convening of this congress is a reminder that we are a Party that draws its mandate from the people. This explains why the Central Committee elections are a precursor to this traditional apex indaba of our dear revolutionary party.
The Central Committee elections come hardly a month after Liberation War Veterans League was fully constituted into a full wing of the Party. This was a long delayed national initiative given the prominent role played by those of us who bore the brunt of the armed struggle.
Legitimacy of the Congress
The seventh congress also comes against a backdrop of our nationwide Party restructuring exercise which culminated in the election of District Coordination Committees (DCCs) and Provincial Coordination Committees (PCCs). Thereafter, the Party successfully convened the Women and Youth League Conferences respectively. All these processes gave motion to a people-driven pathway to this congress. As a result, the seventh ZANU PF Congress will draw delegates from the Central Committee members, National Consultative Assembly, Women’s League national executive, Youth league executive members, National Council of the War Veterans League, provincial executive members, District Coordinating Committee executives and one district executive chairperson per party district drawn from either the Main body, Women’s league, Youth league or War Veterans League. This full membership demographic representative sampling of the Party is aimed at ensuring that the interests of all members are catered for. Like the other preceding congresses, this particular assembly is aimed at informing the policy direction of the Party’s next five year election-derived mandate.
Therefore, as the Party is constitutionally compelled to convene its seventh congress between 26 and 29 October, we are set to achieve the following: Endorsing the leadership of His Excellency Cde Dr. E.D Mnangagwa as the President and First Secretary of ZANU PF; Declaring his unanimously approved candidature for the 2023 Harmonised Election; Ratifying the newly elected Central Committee which is the highest decision-making body of the Party; Appointment of the Party’s Politburo; Harnessing internal democracy systems to foster increased participation of members setting and deciding the agenda of the Party in compliance to enduring national interest.
Beyond the constitutional specifics and objectives of the seventh Congress, this exercise is important in rejuvenating the Party. This is an opportunity for strategy remapping because the main business of all political parties is to capture and consolidate political power.
A leaf from history
ZANU PF as a nationalist hybrid entity of our country’s anti-colonial institutionalization dating back to the formative stage of the Second-Chimurenga cascading down to the Unity Accord of 1987 proves the Party’s grasp of the principle people-driven longevity. While we have suffered a fair share of our internal challenges dating back to the 1963 ZAPU split we have remained alive to our mandate of promoting national interest against all odds and internal revolutionary contradictions. In 2017 the Party reached a significant turning point which was emanating from internal contradictions.
After it all, the Party found its feet once more and all factional toxicity suffered its well-deserved excretion. The New Dispensation came and today we are much stronger than we were before 2017. This explains our confidence in delivering a national prosperity which ‘leaves no one and no place behind’ by the year 2030.
The trend of internal contradictions cannot be divorced from the very birth of today’s ZANU PF. Even after the 1963 ZAPU split which gave birth to the then ZANU, the shared nationalist political soul of our liberation movements at the time saw well consorted ZPRA-ZANLA military formations coming to life and dismantling Rhodesia power. Therefore, if the goal of delivering independence was won against the pretext of such minor ideological contradictions, what can stop us from earning more successes now as a united political formation –ZANU PF?
The same nationalist instinct that unified nationalist movements at the Lancaster Conference became the driving force to the Unity Accord. Nothing can stand in the way of ZANU PF’s nationalist conviction to champion national unity, peace and development. Consequently, the seventh congress is coming against that historical mandate of ZANU PF’s continued commitment to our people’s liberation from the unfinished business of colonialism. This is why ZANU PF continues to seek alternative development routes which are not predetermined by colonial interests. For that reason, we remain unapologetic for reclaiming our land and without doubt, we remain resolute in calling for the fall of the albatross of the illegal colonial sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western super powers.
As we reawaken the spirit of the then ZANU’s inaugural 1964 Congress, we remain alive to the changing needs of our national development mandate to the people of Zimbabwe. Our religious hosting of congresses serves as an allegiance ritual to the Party’s faith in its membership and the entirety of its structures. This historic event registers the pivotal role of the cell as the nucleus of our time immemorial nationwide popularity as a nationalist movement.
United to the Future
It must be clear that our journey to the congress is guided solid principles of our internal discipline and unity of purpose. We remain dependent on the power of internal consultation to make supreme decisions to direct the vision of consolidating our national liberation goals. Without doubt, ZANU PF is in its most stable state than never before. As a result, we take delight in making it known to the world that all our structures will back the President E.D Mnangagwa’s sole candidature for the 2023 Harmonised Election. To be continued!!!!
The author, Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is ZANU PF’s Secretary for Administration in the Politburo.
Bongani Ndlovu