adminZANU-PF Bulawayo province last Friday held a fundraising braai in preparation for the party’s congress which begins on Tuesday, with the province yet to raise its $150 000 target.
Speaking at the occasion, the chairman of the province’s congress fundraising committee, Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube revealed that they would continue holding various fundraising activities in order to reach the targeted amount.
“As a province, we are expected to come up with $150 000, in either cash or kind. Today (Friday) I will be happy if we manage to raise at least $50 000 and we will continue doing our fundraising until Monday,” Rtd Col Dube said.
After the braai, more than $40 000 had been raised.
Rt Col Dube said Bulawayo was at a disadvantage in terms of fundraising.
“In some provinces they have mining companies that can chip in whenever they need money. Look at Matabeleland North for example, they have Hwange Colliery which can assist. However, in Bulawayo the only hope is the banks and sometimes you approach a bank here with the headquarters in Harare. Then it becomes more difficult to approach the headquarters because they might have funded others already. We also have to make do with the few businesspeople in the province but there is not much which they can do,” he said.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Bulawayo Cde Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo, who was the guest of honour, called for unity and sound organisation for both the fundraising endeavours and the congress.
“People need to be organised and united, not to work for a friend in the structural organisation but rather work for the entire organisation. There are some people who are not organised because as you might see, some preferred to ignore this activity but that is not building at all — it is destroying.
“If you count the number of the members who did not come for the fundraising you will be surprised. These absent people were supposed to come and assist us. So we need to be united because we tend to lose that unity of purpose,” said Cde Moyo.
Cde Moyo also revealed that she was happy with the logistical preparations being put in place ahead of the commencement of the congress, noting that everything was in place and they did not expect any hiccups.
“In as far as the Politburo report is concerned, everything is going well. What I can tell you is that people are not going to have problems with food because we have some donations of beasts and other food items,” said the minister.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter