Creative mobilisation for ZAPU

"Be creative, intellectually controversial, provoke interest, steer debate and stimulate curiosity but remain focused on party goals" Said Themba Mthethwa.

Mr Themba Mthethwa one of the original committee members of the ZAPU Resource Mobilisation, which was chaired by the late Obert Nyathi, delivered an intellectually stimulating presentation in London at ZAPU's General Meeting. The thrust of his presentation was 'mobilisation' with particular emphasis on mobilising for the 2018 National elections.

When ZAPU pulled out of the Unity Accord in 2008, it created so much interest and hope in many people's hearts, the people swelled its ranks. However, the numbers slowly dwindled to unsustainable levels, this culminated in dismal performance in the 2013 National elections.
Since the electoral defeat, ZAPU has quickly regrouped at a speed of the lightning and a great deal of soul searching and internal assessment and audit has taken place. Mobilisation or lack of party and leadership visibility has been identified as core issues which need to be addressed without delay.

Mr Mthethwa's presentation came at an opportune time, a time when ZAPU needed strategies to move forward. The spirit and human resources are clearly abundant in ZAPU ranks. There are so many young fire brands in ZAPU, right in Zimbabwe, South Africa, the UK and the USA, willing and ready to sacrifice selves and resources in order to change ZAPU's fortunes.
Mr Mthethwa sees the purpose of mobilisation for ZAPU as to "raise the profile of the party to both existing and prospective members to boost membership; to develop the emotional attachment of members to the ZAPU brand; to create, stimulate or influence existing members and prospects to connect with the brand and gain competitive urge over other political organisations".

ZAPU's profile has been damaged by a number of factors, here I will focus just on a few, the first is the Unity Accord of 1987, and people felt that the Unity was not necessary at that point of their lives as the height of gukurahundi genocide had already passed. The Unity Accord seemed to serve the interests of few leaders who were in the government, but ZAPU in ZANU PF at that time seemed to be powerless to influence positive policies and they failed to bring about development to the their communities.

When ZAPU slept with ZANU PF it failed to advocate for the victims of marginalisation and victims of the genocide which was perpetrated by ZANU PF. ZAPU failed dismally to protect and advocate for its supporters, this tarnished the brand ZAPU and the only way to psychologically move people from their psychological rifts with ZAPU is to start building bridges to connect with its core constituencies and then spread its tentacles to accommodate new members.

It is in this spirit that the message from Mr Mthethwa should be viewed when he says that the purpose of mobilisation is to ..."raise the profile of the party to both existing and prospective members to boost membership; to develop the emotional attachment of members to the ZAPU brand…"

Undoubtedly the emotional connection is somewhat there but still dormant and people's minds are still fraught with suspicion and doubts. But where do these doubts come from, why are the people still suspicious of the trajectory that ZAPU is leading?  There are quite a number of factors; the main one is the lack of visibility of its leaders, particularly its president.

Mr Mthethwa stated that the leader is "the face of the party" and that it is the duty of the party to promote ‘a positive image of the leader, increase visibility of the leader and interaction with ordinary party and prospective members'. Mr Mthethwa went on to say that in order for the leader to successfully endear himself in the hearts and minds of the people the leader needs to be able to articulate the vision of the party and advocate on behalf of the people, particularly in a country like Zimbabwe where everything seems to be so wrong, a leader cannot run out of what to say on behalf of the people.

ZAPU will be holding its National Congress next year in 2015, to elect new leadership. Without a shadow of a doubt, the current crop of leadership is not up to the task. Most of the departments are non-functional, particularly portfolios such as the Information, Marketing and Publicity; and mobilisation.

It is up to ZAPU as a party to show that self-renewal is a virtue for progressive organisations. There should never be a scenario of ZANU and MDC succession debacles. The leadership debate should be encouraged and be in the open. Nobody should be vilified for expressing his or her choice of leadership. Internal manoeuvres using the power of incumbency should be outlawed. Let the people speak. Let the people openly mobilise without being called names.

I am hoping that every position would be fiercely contested, including the Presidential position. Let the best candidates win and take the party to the next level.