‘Zanu PF will never abandon the people’

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT AND FIRST SECRETARY OF ZANU PF, CDE E.D. MNANGAGWA, AT THE 369th SESSION OF THE POLITBURO

I welcome you Comrades to this 369th Ordinary Session of the Politburo.

This Session provides us the opportunity to table and receive matters that relate to the Party’s election roadmap, more so following my recent proclamation of August 23 as the date for the Harmonised General Elections.

Our people’s vote should be a resounding rejection of the machinations of our country’s detractors and their surrogates. 

As the Politburo, it is our responsibility to lead from the front and ensure widespread mobilisation across our Party membership towards protecting and defending our freedom, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

We must be unreservedly united and unflinchingly loyal to our Party.

During this Session, the Politburo will receive reports on the recently concluded National Ideology and Mobilisation Workshop; as well as the state of the Party’s preparedness with regards the Election People’s Manifesto Launch, among other election related matters.

Comrades; The Party and nation as a whole continue to endure the loss of veterans of the liberation struggle. We interred Cde Abraham Kabasa at the National Heroes’ Acre on 29 April, 2023.

I wish to invite the Politburo to observe a minute of silence in his honour and those comrades whom we lost during the intervening period, some of whom were buried in Provincial and District Shrines.

ZANU PF, under the Second Republic, is determined to honour all our heroes for their various contributions in the liberation of our great country.

It is against this background that we resolved to confer National Hero Status on the late founding father of ZANU, Cde Ndabaningi Sithole.

I commend the leadership and people of Chipinge who attended the official ceremony on Saturday June 10, 2023 in Mt Selinda, Chipinge. 

I further express my profound gratitude to all the stakeholders, including the Sithole family and relatives, for the success of the befitting ceremony. I thank you all.

Comrades; As we convene today and focus on the elections, the usual machinations and heinous acts of our country’s detractors to reverse our development agenda are glaring.

This is evidenced by their antics and asymmetrical tactics, which include the attack on our currency and the wanton increase in prices of basic commodities. 

Vakanyangira yaona. They will never succeed and perpetrators are being brought to book. Party structures and communities must remain resolute, vigilant and assured that ZANU PF will never abandon the people of Zimbabwe. 

ZANU PF is a party from the people, by the people and for the people. We will always stand with the people to guarantee our collective aspiration to remain masters of our own destiny.

In spite of the attacks, we will continue to advance sustainable socio-economic development and empowerment to lift many of our people out of poverty and into prosperity.

I want to commend the Commissariat Department, the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology as well as all the party staff for organising the National Ideology and Mobilisation Workshop. 

It is my expectation that the outcomes of the workshop will provide the requisite impetus for stronger, robust and efficient grassroots mobilisation for the party’s resounding victory. 

Activities and programmes of the party must be where the people are.

I look forward to receiving detailed schedules of grassroots mobilisation programmes for all the Leagues that is, the Youth, Women’s and War Veterans.

Meanwhile, I am impressed by the mobilisation capacity and unity of purpose demonstrated by our Party’s Affiliate organisations. 

I particularly commend the Young Women for Economic Development, Commissariat Department and Masvingo Province for successfully organising the historic Rally for First Time Voters.

Such mobilisation programmes targeted at first time voters should be cascaded down ward-by-ward, constituency-by-constituency, district-by-district and province-by-province.

No one and no place should be left behind, as we welcome more voters to our revolutionary mass party, ZANU PF.

Riding on these mobilisation strategies, including the successful rally by the Vapositori nemaZion for Economic Development, all Leagues of the Party must sustain this momentum with focus at the ward level, polling centre by polling centre.

Now that our candidates for councils and parliament, including youth and women’s quota, have been trained and oriented, preparations for the launch of our 2023 ZANU PF Election Campaign, must be accelerated. 

The launch will be held in Chipinge, Manicaland Province.

I challenge the Politburo to continue providing strategic guidance and leadership to our Party Structures, with regards sharpening our mobilisation towards the 23rd of August.

Multiple voices communicating one coordinated message must speak to the constituencies, wards and villages with regards what the Party has delivered. 

In addition, our focus must include voter education with focus on the characteristics and features of the ballot paper. I commend the Party for rolling out programmes to train polling agents.

Comrades; The ZANU PF election victory and that of the people of Zimbabwe is imminent and certain. This has unsettled and placed our country’s detractors and their surrogates into disarray. Their empty strategy has seen them resorting to peddling falsehoods, which is a characteristic feature of their panic.

I, thus, urge the Party and every citizen to be alive to their mischief on the various media platforms, including social media. Let us all from Zambezi to Limpopo, Plumtree to Mutare, guard against the falsehoods and disinformation which are being concocted to breed divisions within our communities.

Lies and falsehoods have short legs, therefore, as a party, we must always ensure that our communities have the correct information about the state of our party and our nation. 

Collectively, let us never allow anyone or anything to divide us. Political parties, individuals, rogue institutions and organisations who enjoy the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe have no place in our country’s body politic.

ZANU PF is a party about results and hope. We are delivering on our promises as set out in our Manifesto and National Development Strategy. Our ongoing development, modernisation and industrialisation agenda will continue to be anchored on our utilisation of domestic resources.

We are food secure and our strategic reserves have sufficient grain to feed the nation. This is a result of our responsive measures to increase production and productivity, incomes as well as livelihoods of our communities.

We take pride in the interventions we are making in the agriculture sector, these include the climate proofed Pfumvudza/Intwasa Programme, winter wheat production, dam construction and the attendant development of irrigation schemes. 

I am pleased that on Thursday, I will be commissioning Chivhu Dam, which is set to see the development of a 120-hectare irrigation scheme.

Going forward, party structures must deploy a comprehensive media and communication strategy to constantly point our communities to these tangible and visible milestones, which the Second Republic and the ZANU PF Government are realising.

Fellow Comrades; I once again reiterate that peace, unity, love and harmony remain critical to entrenching our country’s constitutional democratic practices. 

Hence, as we edge towards 23 August, let us inculcate the culture of peace and non-violence.

We want peace and harmony before, during and after the elections. As ZANU PF, we say no to Violence.

Finally, I challenge every cadre of the party to continue working hard, remain loyal and practice servant leadership working wholeheartedly towards building our beloved motherland, Zimbabwe.

Nyika inovakwa, igotongwa, igonamatirwa nevene vayo.

Ilizwe lakhiwa, libuswe, likhulekelwe ngabanikazi balo, brick-by- brick and stone-upon-stone.