News / Local
'Unity Accord outlived purpose,' says Senior Zanu-PF official
18 Oct 2014 at 06:05hrs | Views
ZANU-PF Bulawayo provincial chairperson Professor Callistus Ndlovu has said the 1987 Unity Accord has outlived its purpose and is now being abused by power-hungry officials to achieve selfish ends.
The accord united Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu into one party.
Speaking at First Lady Grace Mugabe's rally in Bulawayo on Wednesday as part of her "Meet the People" tour, Prof Ndlovu said there were some party officials who were using the Unity Accord to sow divisions within Zanu-PF.
Prof Ndlovu's sentiments come as five senior members namely Zanu-PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, Zanu-PF politburo member Rtd Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri, former Ambassador to South Africa Phelekezela Mphoko and Zanu-PF politburo member Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu are all vying for the second vice presidency.
The five are all citing a clause in the agreement that states that the post is reserved for former PF-Zapu cadres.
"I said I should tell you that the Unity Accord is loved by the people but we've seen that there're some people who want to abuse it.
"There're some people who think that when Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo signed that document, they signed as if it was a transaction. "I'm saying they were signing a transformational document not a document that would stay like that," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said a man once told him that to them, "the unity accord is like something that when one is sleeping and dreaming, wakes up and looks at the time and checks who has died and how far I'm in line so that probably I could land that position.
"The Unity Accord is not about that. The Unity Accord said there would be transformation, meaning that the party will be united and not that people would keep identifying themselves as Zanu or Zapu. We've gotten to a time that the Unity Accord should be transformed.
"There're those who've been trying to organise people, telling them that they're senior. The most important thing in the party isn't just seniority. What's important is capacity. If you don't have capacity, you can't expect to crawl into power, this thing was done for the party to unite, united for people to be elected according to talent," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said it is not an abstractive type of thing where people get positions by declaring what they did and where they were in the past.
"This was not a transaction but a transformational thing. There's a difference between a transaction and transformation. We're saying, here in Bulawayo, we see unity as a means of getting people to work together and move forward, that all fault lines that we had about being Zapu and Zanu and Ndebele or Shona, all those fault lines should be broken because we don't want that," said Prof Ndlovu.
"The people that we want to lead should be those with wisdom and vision to see where we're going and not people who draw us back, those who draw back should go back to their houses because the party cannot afford to baby-sit people like that."
Prof Ndlovu added, "Here in Bulawayo we say Nkomo left us a legacy of working with others and people must realise that Dr Nkomo was not a vindictive person. He knew that even if you differed, tomorrow you could work together and there's no need to pretend that there should always be fighting, what are we fighting for?
"We want Zanu-PF to lead people so that we go forward so that all those who think getting into Zanu-PF is a chance to cause chaos, to be told that we don't want chaos, what we want is positive, critical thinking and the capacity to lead the people of Zimbabwe."
Prof Ndlovu said when his executive got into office last year the province was engulfed in chaos.
He said there were members who would go around asking for money from business people in the name of the party.
Prof Ndlovu said some would claim that the money was meant for the hosting of the 21st February Movement only to pocket the money as they were not sanctioned by the party.
"Even a few days ago, some people here printed Zanu-PF letterheads and used fake party stamps in a bid to raise money. This happened after talking to some of them telling them that we didn't condone such behaviour. We decided that it was better for law enforcement agents to deal with those people," said Prof Ndlovu.
"The name of the party will not be soiled by people who don't know what they're doing. Our mission has been that when a person does wrong, we make them sit down and reprimand them, we've never chased anyone or suspended anyone but there comes a time that when one continues to do wrong they're punished.
"We've a zero tolerance to such things like violence and wayward behaviour."
The accord united Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu into one party.
Speaking at First Lady Grace Mugabe's rally in Bulawayo on Wednesday as part of her "Meet the People" tour, Prof Ndlovu said there were some party officials who were using the Unity Accord to sow divisions within Zanu-PF.
Prof Ndlovu's sentiments come as five senior members namely Zanu-PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, Zanu-PF politburo member Rtd Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri, former Ambassador to South Africa Phelekezela Mphoko and Zanu-PF politburo member Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu are all vying for the second vice presidency.
The five are all citing a clause in the agreement that states that the post is reserved for former PF-Zapu cadres.
"I said I should tell you that the Unity Accord is loved by the people but we've seen that there're some people who want to abuse it.
"There're some people who think that when Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo signed that document, they signed as if it was a transaction. "I'm saying they were signing a transformational document not a document that would stay like that," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said a man once told him that to them, "the unity accord is like something that when one is sleeping and dreaming, wakes up and looks at the time and checks who has died and how far I'm in line so that probably I could land that position.
"The Unity Accord is not about that. The Unity Accord said there would be transformation, meaning that the party will be united and not that people would keep identifying themselves as Zanu or Zapu. We've gotten to a time that the Unity Accord should be transformed.
"There're those who've been trying to organise people, telling them that they're senior. The most important thing in the party isn't just seniority. What's important is capacity. If you don't have capacity, you can't expect to crawl into power, this thing was done for the party to unite, united for people to be elected according to talent," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said it is not an abstractive type of thing where people get positions by declaring what they did and where they were in the past.
"This was not a transaction but a transformational thing. There's a difference between a transaction and transformation. We're saying, here in Bulawayo, we see unity as a means of getting people to work together and move forward, that all fault lines that we had about being Zapu and Zanu and Ndebele or Shona, all those fault lines should be broken because we don't want that," said Prof Ndlovu.
"The people that we want to lead should be those with wisdom and vision to see where we're going and not people who draw us back, those who draw back should go back to their houses because the party cannot afford to baby-sit people like that."
Prof Ndlovu added, "Here in Bulawayo we say Nkomo left us a legacy of working with others and people must realise that Dr Nkomo was not a vindictive person. He knew that even if you differed, tomorrow you could work together and there's no need to pretend that there should always be fighting, what are we fighting for?
"We want Zanu-PF to lead people so that we go forward so that all those who think getting into Zanu-PF is a chance to cause chaos, to be told that we don't want chaos, what we want is positive, critical thinking and the capacity to lead the people of Zimbabwe."
Prof Ndlovu said when his executive got into office last year the province was engulfed in chaos.
He said there were members who would go around asking for money from business people in the name of the party.
Prof Ndlovu said some would claim that the money was meant for the hosting of the 21st February Movement only to pocket the money as they were not sanctioned by the party.
"Even a few days ago, some people here printed Zanu-PF letterheads and used fake party stamps in a bid to raise money. This happened after talking to some of them telling them that we didn't condone such behaviour. We decided that it was better for law enforcement agents to deal with those people," said Prof Ndlovu.
"The name of the party will not be soiled by people who don't know what they're doing. Our mission has been that when a person does wrong, we make them sit down and reprimand them, we've never chased anyone or suspended anyone but there comes a time that when one continues to do wrong they're punished.
"We've a zero tolerance to such things like violence and wayward behaviour."
Source - chronicle
