Zanu-PF endorses primary elections roadmap

Zanu-PF's Politburo yesterday endorsed the primary elections roadmap for members interested in representing the party in the March by-elections and also approved a list of the remaining cadres elected during the recently held intra-party provincial polls.

The primary elections will be held on Thursday this week after President Mnangagwa proclaimed March 26 as the date for the by-elections to fill 28 vacant National Assembly and 105 local authority seats.

Addressing journalists at the party's headquarters in Harare yesterday, Zanu-PF political commissar Cde Mike Bimha said the party had started preparations for primary elections.

"One of the issues (deliberated by the Politburo) had to do with the finalisation of provincial elections. Last time, the Politburo endorsed elections of three structures that were mainly chairpersons of the Main Wing, the Women's League and the Youth League," he said.

"In a province, we have a provincial structure of 120 members, so when the endorsement was done last time we were only talking of those three positions. We then sent Politburo members to go and oversee the equitable distribution of the remaining 117 members countrywide. Today we were presenting the names of the winners from each province. We now have 1 200 provincial members in the country. The structures have now been endorsed and approved."

The party's head office, he said, has started receiving and vetting curriculum vitae (CVs) of primary election candidates.

"Some of the activities had already started, with the meeting that was held by the organising committee and the call for submission of CVs.

"We are at the stage where the roadmap has commenced. We are now putting together a command centre at the head office to start the process which will culminate in the holding of the primary elections."

Speaking at the same media briefing, Zanu-PF national spokesperson Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa said the Politburo had endorsed the issuing of title deeds to homeowners that had struggled to get documents for a long time in urban areas.

"We also discussed issuing title deeds for the existing stock of houses in the urban areas. We will make sure that those without the title deeds will somehow get the title deeds.

"We have engaged the space agency under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology and already two suburbs have been completed.

"We also discussed the issue of Mbare. We received a report from Harare province. We will not tolerate the abuse of public infrastructure that is being personalised by a few individuals," he said.