#zimbabwe Editorial Comment: Zanu-PF must now consolidate unity ift.tt/1ua6MPf THE Zanu-PF Sixth National People’s Congress that ended in Harare on Saturday must go down in history as the stage at which the revolutionary party dealt decisively with factionalism. Bitter divisions had rocked the party for about 10 years with multiple centres of power fighting to outdo each other all the time. This paralysed party and government activities and almost cost the revolutionary party political power in 2008. Factionalism nearly split the party ahead of the congress as the side led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru went for broke in its quest to wrest the presidency from President Mugabe. But the potentially explosive conditions were defused after the plotters were picked out in good time, disciplined or removed from the influential positions that they abused for parochial benefit. The party also used the congress to assert its allegiance to President Mugabe. It follows that if everyone in Zanu-PF is loyal to the President, they will not be loyal to anyone else. If everyone in the party rallies behind the President, as should be the case all the time, there is no chance that anyone could fancy themselves building small empires on the sidelines. When this happens, factionalism goes. The President spoke strongly against factionalism in his closing address on Saturday night, reiterating that it will not be tolerated. “And I would want to warn all those in the Central Committee that if you’re going to be chosen into the Politburo,” he said, “drop the nonsense about ‘these are my people, these are my people.’ They’re all our people. In the country, you might have your family; no one will forbid you from saying ‘this is my family, I come from this area,’ but when we’re now working for the country, working for the party we’re working for everyone. We don’t choose saying ‘these are mine, these are yours.’ No. I want them to learn from the example we have had, the lesson we have had, this one that has set us apart with VP Mujuru. We don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to listen to that nonsense at all.” Indeed we look forward to a stronger party after congress, a party that is united and respects the authority of the President, ultimately. The draft resolutions presented at the end of the congress pointedly highlight the destructive operations of the counter-revolutionary element that has since been thwarted. It shows that the party, while it admittedly took its time to nip the cancer in the bud, has the ability and willingness to confront divisive elements. One resolution actually calls for factionalists to be punished. Factionalism creates confusion, it weakens the party, can influence some to commit heinous crimes in the name of protecting their faction or advancing its interests. The extent to which the cancer had developed was so bad that it had grown out of the party to permeate the arms of the state. Congress gave us a few highlights — the rise of some political careers and the collapse of others. VP Mujuru, Cdes Didymus Mutasa, Nicholas Goche, Webster Shamu, Munacho Mutezo, Angeline Masuku, Olivia Muchena, Ray Kaukonde and Dzikamai Mavhaire found no place in the party’s Central Committee and, as a consequence, will not find places in the Politburo to be announced by the President by Thursday. They might not keep their Cabinet posts too. These are formerly mighty men and women who have fallen. At the same time, congress witnessed the rise of promising political careers. The First Lady, by virtue of her being picked by the Women’s League to represent them in August, won a place in the Central Committee at congress and would be a member of the next Politburo. Cdes Supa Mandiwanzira is one of the younger cadres to secure a seat in the Central Committee, as did Cdes Kudzi Chipanga and Joseph Tshuma among others. The task for the party leadership and faithful going forward, now that congress is over, must be to consolidate unity and cohesion. Furthermore, we expect renewed focus on the economy. We have ZimAsset in place, which had been put aside as some figures slugged it out politically. We are happy that already, we have billions worth of deals Zimbabwe signed in China which are waiting to be operationalised. They are geared towards infrastructure development, the spine on which an economy thrives. If we get our enabling environment working, we expect the economy to return to the development path. With factionalism defeated at congress after those who fomented it were put in their places, nothing can stop Zimbabweans going about their business of building their economy and country. ift.tt/eA8V8J
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 04:23:27 +0000
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