Zanu-PF moves to 'strengthen' structures

ZANU-PF has started the process of setting up District Coordinating Committee (DCC) structures in the remaining eight provinces, the party's national secretary for the commissariat Victor Matemadanda has said.

This comes as the party has already set up DCC structures in Harare and Bulawayo, with the restructuring of the two metropolitan provinces already underway.

Matemadanda said he had already sent a circular to all the eight provincial chairpersons, informing them on the need to restructure so as to embolden the party.

DCCs were disbanded in 2012, after it was felt that they had been hijacked by elements that sought to manipulate party structures to foment factionalism and disharmony in the party.

The party, Matemadanda said, will dispatch Politburo members to all the remaining eight provinces to educate members on the composition of the electoral college.

"The process is going to start this weekend on the 5th of September when Politburo members will meet party structures in various provinces. All the provinces will then hold Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meetings the following weekend, where party members will be advised to submit their CVs. The CVs will then go through the security checks for the vetting process for consideration. All the positions within the DCC structures will be open for the selected candidates," said Matemadanda.

In line with Covid-19 World Health Organisation guidelines, Matemadanda said members will be put in groups 50s to avoid the spread of the pandemic.

The process is expected to end in a month's time.

"Our desire is to have all the DCC elections conducted in one day. As you know, Harare and Bulawayo had different characteristics from all other provinces in that they had dissolved their executives," he added.

Matemadanda said DCC members had a role in rebuilding the party from grassroots and should start mobilising members now. All card-carrying members, he said, will be eligible to vote for members of the proposed DCCs, whose prospective candidates will be vetted after the submission of their CVs.

"Every card-carrying member is expected to play a part in the formation of the DCCs. It is now time for everyone, even church members and professionals to be involved in setting up party structures. We expect all those who want to contest for positions to submit their CVs through their respective districts," said Matemadanda.

He warned some senior party members not to influence the outcome of the DCC elections.

"We need to set up proper structures from cells, branches and districts and ensure the party gets the correct figures of our membership. We need to do a headcount.

"A constitutional requirement is that we do the cells every year and the process takes about three months.

"The party's constitution provides for branches to be restructured every two years, district every three years, provinces every four years and then Central Committee every five years then that brings us to congress, which we have every five years," he said.

The party recently set up an interim executive committee in Harare and Bulawayo to superintend party programmes within the two respective provinces.

The Zanu-PF interim executive for Harare Province led by Goodwills Masimirembwa is working on a cell verification exercise in the province, which is expected to be completed in two weeks' time.

The province is expected to work towards ensuring that the party wins more seats in Harare.