Forever Associates Zimbabwe's campaign methods exposed

A MANUAL for the Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz), a Central Intelligence Organisation-controlled shadowy entity clandestinely and unlawfully using public resources to campaign for the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF in the August general elections, details how the intelligence service is running the campaign.

The document, titled Scope of Campaign Activities, explains what should be done.

"The mainstay of this campaign is door-todoor intimate voter contact. This allows the volunteer to move from house-to-house and workplace-to-workplace, talking to individual voters one at a time. This, in turn, enables the volunteer to know the problems voters face, gauge their level of support for party and candidate, and tailor massages and campaign activities to address their concerns.  These visits must not be once-off, but must become regular to help the party to dominate and saturate the environment while denying the same to opponents," the Faz manual says.

"Once the party has access to the voters' roll, preferably broken down to constituencies and even to polling stations, volunteers must keep in touch with registered voters through texting and phoning. This must be done almost intrusively, as a way of maintaining intimacy. Volunteers should be in the habit of checking on the health and well-being of voters as a way of showing the party's and candidate's concern. This can also be used for reminding voters of important election-related events and issues, while also keeping them up to date on key developments.

"Volunteers must be available to furnish voters with the party's and candidate's campaign literature in their homes and workspaces. This will be done door-to-door or at community gatherings. Literature will also be distributed at markets, bus termini or shops, thus helping to expand the campaign to voters outside the volunteer's immediate area of responsibility.

"Volunteers will administer voter education to contacts and assist those who are undocumented or aliens to acquire national registration documents and to register to vote. These interventions, which are already taking place in all constituencies nationwide, should result in a significant surge in registered voters who attribute that achievement to President ED (Mnangagwa) and Zanu-PF. Volunteers must maintain contact with people they would have assisted to register to vote or to acquire national documents so that they are not won over to the opposition's poisonous narratives

The manual continues: "Volunteers will initiate programmes where contacts are invited to enlist their friends into networks of voters such as WhatsApp groups, teas, social clubs and interest groups, where contacts are encouraged to spread the campaign message to their friends and bring these into the fold. This will enable the campaign to grow in a snowball effect.

"Volunteers, either individually or by coming together as a team, will engage, befriend and maintain contact with these community leaders, influencers and opinion leaders as a way of authoritatively gaining, through them, the support of their followers for the party and candidate.

"Volunteers will participate in sporting, religious, political and cultural events within the Constituency and use the opportunity to learn about the community and influence individuals to support the party and candidate. They will also do the same with small but highly publicised practical social interventions, such as helping the sick, attending funerals and mitigating property losses due to fire or weather damage.

"Faz volunteers are required to intrusively access party cell registers, from party cell chairmen, and check and verify their accuracy and integrity. To this end, Faz then discretely conducts a head count of cell members, checking if they are registered to vote. If any party members or holders of positions of leadership are found not to have national documents or registered to vote, Faz, therefore, will handhold and assist all those to rectify the discrepancy under supervision.

 "Faz has inbuilt structures and skills to engage in dedicated media activity, content generation, Web activity and cyber warfare focused on the party's and candidate's campaign. Constituency teams may request coverage for their activities whenever necessary.

"Four times monthly, on Sundays, the constituency team is required to come together and host public events at Growth Points and other population centres in the constituencies, during which people are entertained with music and movies. These shows are then interrupted at intervals to address these audiences, imparting the party's campaign message.

"Faz volunteers, either individually or in groups, must never engage in political violence, except in self-defence for purposes of extricating themselves from an attack if one is foisted upon them. They, accordingly, must not offer themselves to be used as such or to accept instructions from any authority to engage in violence for whatever reason. It is not in Faz, the party's or the president's pedigree, plan, interest or desire to use violence as a campaign tool. Any Faz member who engages in acts of politically motivated violence, other than for purposes of self-defence under strictly exceptional circumstances, will be automatically expelled and deregistered from the Trust."