Opinion / Columnist
ZANU PF special congress taking the elections seriously
28 Oct 2017 at 12:47hrs | Views
In a swift turn of events ZANU PF has decided to hold a Special congress to come up with a strong battle cry for the harmonised elections of 2018.
The President in his overflowing wisdom requested the party to follow the procedure and make way for a Special Congress. This comes from a background of fierce infighting and bickering. Surprisingly men in the party have become rumour mongers and sort to confuse the cadres by saying the Special Congress is going to be used to fire the Vice President and promote the First lady to the position of the Vice President.
Provinces have been telling MPs that those who do not tour the line will be side lined in the primaries. The issue of the Congress has been sold in a very wrong way and this is not press news floating by the senior members in the party who are bent to confuse the electorate and the faithful members.
The Congress to the contrary will, be used to, rally all party structures around the only goal of winning the 2018 harmonised elections and coming up with the [arty and national priorities. It is not meant to prove the power of one faction over another but it is meant to remove the factions and have a unity of purpose. It is a Special Congress to strategize and reorganise. It would have been a disaster to take the party to elections in its fractured state. It needed no plaster but total healing.
The Central Committee has the task of coming up with the national agenda. It is true that there are people threatening Central Committee members to come up with agendas which are divisive and not uniting. Some are already calling this Congress as a last nail in the political life of others. ZANU PF cannot be plunged into confusion, it has always been a disciplined party and indeed it has shown that.
President Mugabe made it clear that focus should be on the polls, and not on individual bitterness against each other. The prophets of doom will coil back in their shells as soon the congress ends and the people come up with a strong resolution of power and force and great will to win. ZANU PF is a stranger to losing so that is not in our programme.
An Extraordinary Congress, according to Section 30 of Zanu-PF's constitution, can only deliberate on the issues for which it has been specifically convened and other matters cannot be smuggled onto the agenda. So those who are harbouring sinister agendas will drag their feet with their tails between their legs.
Only a majority of the Central Committee, a minimum of five of the party's 10 provincial executive committees, or the President in concurrence with at least a third of the Central Committee, can call for an Extraordinary Congress and initiate its agenda, and not any other structures of individuals. So this has already been done and the ball is rolling.
The point these misfits do seem to forget is that the President is the First Secretary of ZANU PF and does not need a special Congress to appoint a vice president or to fire one. The rumours being peddled by those in provinces are destructive and not in the best interest of the party. The congress is done after an exhaustive procedure and for a reason, the reason this time is for the coming elections. in most cases elections do come after Congress and this time it was going to a year early.
It is the work of the Central committee to en-cooperate the resolutions of provinces into a Congress agenda. Yes there will be some who have thought it was the time to rub their bitterness.
Issues of personal vendettas will have no place in the Congress and indeed the Congress is not tailor made for that VP or that one. What is needed now is to come together as a party and burry our hatchets and march on to victory.
People should remember that the party programme is not the government programme, the two calendars are not similar and if there is a difference the party will have to adjust. This happened again in 2002 and there was no replacement of a VP or any officer therefore.
So the Special Congress is completely procedural and it's not for any of the factions to waste time planning and counter planning.
ZANU PF is very strong in its seemingly disunity; it is not disunity but sibling bunter.
vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk
The President in his overflowing wisdom requested the party to follow the procedure and make way for a Special Congress. This comes from a background of fierce infighting and bickering. Surprisingly men in the party have become rumour mongers and sort to confuse the cadres by saying the Special Congress is going to be used to fire the Vice President and promote the First lady to the position of the Vice President.
Provinces have been telling MPs that those who do not tour the line will be side lined in the primaries. The issue of the Congress has been sold in a very wrong way and this is not press news floating by the senior members in the party who are bent to confuse the electorate and the faithful members.
The Congress to the contrary will, be used to, rally all party structures around the only goal of winning the 2018 harmonised elections and coming up with the [arty and national priorities. It is not meant to prove the power of one faction over another but it is meant to remove the factions and have a unity of purpose. It is a Special Congress to strategize and reorganise. It would have been a disaster to take the party to elections in its fractured state. It needed no plaster but total healing.
The Central Committee has the task of coming up with the national agenda. It is true that there are people threatening Central Committee members to come up with agendas which are divisive and not uniting. Some are already calling this Congress as a last nail in the political life of others. ZANU PF cannot be plunged into confusion, it has always been a disciplined party and indeed it has shown that.
President Mugabe made it clear that focus should be on the polls, and not on individual bitterness against each other. The prophets of doom will coil back in their shells as soon the congress ends and the people come up with a strong resolution of power and force and great will to win. ZANU PF is a stranger to losing so that is not in our programme.
An Extraordinary Congress, according to Section 30 of Zanu-PF's constitution, can only deliberate on the issues for which it has been specifically convened and other matters cannot be smuggled onto the agenda. So those who are harbouring sinister agendas will drag their feet with their tails between their legs.
The point these misfits do seem to forget is that the President is the First Secretary of ZANU PF and does not need a special Congress to appoint a vice president or to fire one. The rumours being peddled by those in provinces are destructive and not in the best interest of the party. The congress is done after an exhaustive procedure and for a reason, the reason this time is for the coming elections. in most cases elections do come after Congress and this time it was going to a year early.
It is the work of the Central committee to en-cooperate the resolutions of provinces into a Congress agenda. Yes there will be some who have thought it was the time to rub their bitterness.
Issues of personal vendettas will have no place in the Congress and indeed the Congress is not tailor made for that VP or that one. What is needed now is to come together as a party and burry our hatchets and march on to victory.
People should remember that the party programme is not the government programme, the two calendars are not similar and if there is a difference the party will have to adjust. This happened again in 2002 and there was no replacement of a VP or any officer therefore.
So the Special Congress is completely procedural and it's not for any of the factions to waste time planning and counter planning.
ZANU PF is very strong in its seemingly disunity; it is not disunity but sibling bunter.
vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk
Source - Dr Masimba Mavaza
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