Zanu-PF rubbishes G40 election claims

The ruling Zanu-PF has rubbished claims that former G40 elements pose a threat to its hopes of romping to victory in the 2023 elections, saying it will not be distracted by "a few outside noisemakers".

Acting Zanu-PF national spokesperson Mike Bimha yesterday said Zanu-PF was not perturbed by the so-called former G40 members, saying those elements only existed in the past.

Speaking exclusively to The Herald during a visit to Masvingo to assess the ongoing party restructuring exercise, Bimha highlighted the positive spin-offs from President Mnangagwa's diplomatic victory when he engaged leaders of the Western world at the just-ended COP26 meeting in Scotland.

He said the COP26 meeting in Glasgow afforded the Zanu-PF First Secretary an opportunity to tell Zimbabwe's story to the world.

Bimha said the ongoing re-engagement drive by President Mnangagwa's administration, coupled with success on the economic front in the domestic sphere, were harbingers of a prosperous Zimbabwe and testament of the Second Republic's commitment to engender inclusive growth.

He said the talk of G40 causing problems in the ruling party was misplaced.

"The issue of the former G40 members is an issue of the past, which has no relevance to us in Zanu-PF as a party," said Bimha.

"To us, that is already water under the bridge and we are not perturbed at all because those who saw that they could not fit in the new establishment left a long time ago and we don't think that the G40 issue is anything to worry about.

"We really don't think we should spend time thinking or talking about G40 now. Focus now should really be on strengthening the party and preparing for 2023 elections so that Zanu-PF and President Mnangagwa record a crushing win.

"We can't be distracted by G40 members making noise from outside."

Bimha said former G40 members were free to form their own party.

He said Zanu-PF had continued to grow with new members joining everyday as the party targets more than five million votes in 2023.

"The Zanu-PF-led Government has been rolling out programmes and projects that bring tangible economic benefit to the people," said Bimha.

"There has been a great deal of investment in areas such as infrastructure and people are seeing the changes.

"Zanu-PF is getting new members every day and demand for our party cards is very high.

"We are getting new members from the opposition daily and our major task at the moment is to receive those new members and help them fit into our new way of doing things."

Bimha commended President Mnangagwa and the new dispensation for successfully engaging and re-engaging with the international community.

He noted that the beauty of the ongoing re-engagement drive by the Second Republic was that "Zimbabwe was not doing it by extending a begging bowl" to countries that are hostile to it.

Bimha said Zimbabwe was using engagement and re-engagement to tell its own story to the world.