Heads to roll in Zanu-PF

ZANU-PF has warned that heads will roll in the ruling party in line with its restructuring exercise amid revelations that there were some unrepentant members of the infamous G40 cabal who are frustrating party programmes.

Addressing party members during an inter-district meeting at Njube suburb in Bulawayo yesterday, Zanu-PF Director in the Commissariat, Retired Colonel George Nare, said they were aware of G40 remnants within the party structures working with the opposition MDC Alliance to derail party programmes.

"The restructuring exercise is coming and this time it will be thorough and be rest assured that heads will begin to roll at party headquarters and more heads will continue to roll as we restructure our party. We have since established that we still have G40 people who don't want to reform and as I speak, one of our leaders was captured on video bad mouthing our President ED Mnangagwa," said Rtd Col Nare.

He urged party members to choose leaders who are capable of mobilising support, particularly in urban areas which are perceived to be opposition strongholds.

"The imminent restructuring exercise is aimed at rebuilding our party structures from cell to national level. We want real fighters who will take the opposition head on. We therefore need to identify leaders based on merit and capability and this time we are saying there has to be thoroughness in choosing leaders able to shape the party at cell, district, provincial and national level," said Rtd Col Nare.

He said there was a need for leaders to be honest and put the interests of the party first ahead of personal ones.

"The party wants honest leaders and regionalism and nepotism should not be condoned as that destroys our party. If you are a leader, you are a servant of the people who elected you not their master. The reason why we are losing elections in urban areas is because we don't have good leaders. In fact, we have leaders who push their own agenda at the expense of party interests," said Rtd Col Nare.

He slammed some senior Government officials accusing them of derailing Government programmes. Rtd Col Nare, who is also the Director of Administration and Finance at the Zanu-PF Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology, said there was a need to instill a sense of patriotism by training youths and prospective Government employees before they are admitted into the civil service.

"As Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology, we have come up with a programme to train our members on the history of the liberation struggle.

"We are even proposing that before one is appointed a Permanent Secretary or Director in a ministry, they should first go through the ideological college and pass an examination and this is because we have noticed that some of these people occupying these Government offices are working against the Government and the ruling Zanu-PF party.

"They are sabotaging our programmes by closing Zimbabwe for business yet we are saying our country is open for business," he said.

Rtd Col Nare said the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology is expected to open more learning centres in the country's 10 provinces as part of its expansion drive.

The school started offering an array of courses in January last year and was opened after a realisation that some people were joining Zanu-PF and even occupying leadership positions without enough knowledge of the party's founding principles and the history of the liberation struggle.

"Zanu-PF wants to make sure that all of its members receive political orientation starting from cell level right up to national and that is why we are working on setting up schools in all the country's 10 provinces and very soon Bulawayo will get one," said Rtd Col Nare.

He said the ongoing inter-district meetings in Bulawayo, which began on Saturday, were part of the ruling party's restructuring exercise aimed at coming up with strategies to address the political challenges affecting the province.

The party's Secretary for Administration, Dr Obert Mpofu, who led the delegation from the Zanu-PF headquarters in Harare, addressed the first meeting at the party's Bulawayo provincial headquarters, Davies Hall on Saturday.