Mugabe threatens ministers

CABINET ministers and senior Zanu-PF officials must be content with their positions since they serve at the mercy of the party and can be redeployed or replaced at any given point when the need arises, President Mugabe said yesterday.

As such, he said, officials were being deployed to serve the people.

President Mugabe, in his capacity as the Head of State and Government and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, is empowered to appoint both Cabinet ministers and Politburo members.

Addressing the second session of the Zanu-PF Central Committee since the party's National People's Congress in December last year, President Mugabe said there were some Zanu-PF officials and Cabinet Ministers who complained about positions assigned to them.

"Amongst yourself also, when you're in a position, that position is a party position.

"It doesn't become your post. Just as in government, you're minister of this, Minister of Industry, Minister of Mines.

"The fact that you're that minister doesn't mean you own that ministry. It means you're put as a servant of the people to supervise that ministry. You may be changed tomorrow and someone else takes the place. And when you're shifted again, you shout 'why was I changed'?

"'I don't want this ministry which I've been given. I preferred this. It's me who did this or who did that, now the President doesn't recognise me.' I don't recognise you for working for a place. I recognise you for working for the people, for the party not for a post. We aren't there to work for posts.

"We're there to work for the people and the people will recognise us. We're there to serve for the people but at the end of it all, well human beings are human beings. You can't avoid to be some, you can't avoid to look forward and say 'where shall I be if so and so is going to take over from the President, must I not be next to him. Must I not do what he wants?'

"When you're like that, you're a finished person, completely finished person and you've become a puppet and don't be a puppet. Stand your ground. Whatever happens in future you'll be there as a member of the party and serving the party."

President Mugabe took a swipe at some party officials who rushed to vent their grievances relating to party business on the Internet.

He said issues relating to the party should be dealt with through party structures.

"Let's also not undermine each other," said the President.

"Throwing on the Internet this about so-and-so. No. If you're making objective accusations, why should they go to the Internet first?

"They should come to us. You've the various fora, the various levels where you can make your reports. We'll accept those reports and address them, receive them. But the Internet mind you is the ground where all sorts of people play.

"It becomes the swimming pool for everybody and you go to the Internet you want to see what the Internet says today, you get what it says, what the newspapers, the opposition papers say. You can get South African also, some filthy stories about (President Jacob) Zuma. But that doesn't work. If you want to depend on the Internet for your own direction then you're being wrong-minded."

President Mugabe urged Zanu-PF members to be focused and refuse to be used by some people with misguided ambitions.

He said no one owns people in the party as they all belong to the party.

President Mugabe also said some party members got lost along the way when they sided with former Vice President Joice Mujuru thinking that she was about to take over both party and State presidency.

"Some, of course, we know were quietly moving with 'Gamatox', but we said we couldn't get everybody," he said.

"Some thought what they were being told that the President will retire and give people way and they, therefore, were beginning to plan for themselves. Where shall I be when the President is gone?

"Okay, I must do this to Mai Mujuru, do this to that. Be strong as yourself. The members of Zanu-PF will make their decision properly. You don't have to belong to someone.

"You don't even belong to me. You belong to Zanu-PF. I'm only your leader. I'm a member of Zanu-PF, so are you. But you've made me your leader. Let's be ourselves. Be what you are. The honest person you are. Don't pretend to be someone else."

President Mugabe said yesterday's Central Committee, acting on behalf of the Congress, would hear some of the disciplinary cases reported to the Politburo.

He also spoke strongly against tribalism, saying all Zimbabweans were bound by one nation.

President Mugabe said unity was imperative for the development of the nation, adding that members of the party should be conversant with the party's constitution.

In addition, President Mugabe urged party members to pay up their subscriptions, saying the party relied on them more for sustenance over and above the donations from its well-wishers and friends.

The President also said the month of August was important in the history of Zimbabwe as the nation remembers the ultimate sacrifices made by the living and departed heroes who fought to liberate the country from the yoke of colonialism.