Zanu-PF suspends membership cards

Zanu-PF has put a halt to the issuing of party membership cards indefinitely reportedly in a bid to allow for auditing over allegations of gross abuse of funds.

The Daily News saw two notices, one posted at the Bulawayo party headquarters at Davies Hall and another from Harare provincial offices confirming the directive from the ruling party's head office.

"Notice is hereby given to members who would like to acquire party membership cards that we are closed for this programme until further notice.

"You will be informed when the programme resumes. Those who are collecting should see their sub office coordinators, we apologise for any inconveniences caused," read the notices.

But Simon Khaya Moyo, Zanu-PF spokesperson, said he was not aware of the development, referring all questions to the party's national political commissar Savior Kasukuwere who was unreachable for comment.

However, last month, Kasukuwere played down the party cards issue when asked by journalists insisting that scribes make up stories.

"You love to create issues where there are none. If there are any issues that happened which were not correct, they will be dealt with in the party. But as far I am concerned we are happy with the conduct of our officials in terms of the money they have received in terms of cards and that exercise has shown how popular the party is. People are asking for those cards across the country," said Kasukuwere.

"The programme of issuing out party cards will be accelerated because we have a modern computerised database system across Zimbabwe," he added.

In Bulawayo, this paper witnessed over the weekend two women — who were seeking membership cards — being turned away.

A Zanu-PF official at Davies Hall who declined to be named said Bulawayo was one of the cities that were implicated in the abuse of membership cards hence the decision.

"This directive came just before congress in December after it emerged that provinces were abusing the membership cards, so in a bid to audit, they had to immediately stop the operation," said the official.

He added that he was hoping that the process would resume soon as many people were now willing to join the party due to serious disintegration within opposition parties.

Last year, in the run-up to the  Zanu-PF "elective" congress, there were reports that Zanu-PF party memberships cards worth about

$400 000 could not be accounted for from provinces, raising fears the money could have been misappropriated.

The commissariat department under former political commissar Webster Shamu disbursed 1 274 320 cards since 2009, but as at September 2014, about 400 000 were yet to be accounted for.

According to a Central Committee report, Harare has the highest number of missing cards with about 95 000 not accounted for while Mashonaland East comes second with about 74 000 cards missing.

Manicaland Province received 132 440 cards, sold 65 837 and returned 5 563 while 61 040 are unaccounted for while Mashonaland West Province got 104 360, sold 61 030, returned 2 742 and 40 588 missing.

Midlands Province received 283 480, sold 247 248 and returned 5 472, but 30 760 are yet to be accounted for while Masvingo Province got 63 500, sold 34 446 and returned nothing with an outstanding balance of 29 054.

Matabeleland North Province got 35 000 cards, where 15 639 were sold and 415 were returned, leaving an outstanding balance of 18 946.

Bulawayo received 35 000 cards, sold 16 055 and returned 5 833 with 13 112 unaccounted for while Matabeleland South province got 29 800 cards, where 22 012 were sold, 1 060 were returned and 6 728 reported missing.

Mashonaland Central Province is the only province that exhausted all its 67 000 cards and paid for them.