News / National
Zanu-PF urged to guard against patronage
05 Dec 2017 at 00:22hrs | Views
ZANU-PF should guard against making individuals more important than the party as this breeds patronage which destroys the organisation, Bulawayo provincial chairman Professor Callistus Ndlovu said yesterday.
Prof Ndlovu said this in an interview where he revealed that his provincial executive will not waste its energy on expelling or suspending party members.
He said any organisation which focuses its energies on witch-hunts is on a destruction path.
Prof Ndlovu bounced back as the provincial chairman last week following recent Central Committee elections to reinstate members who were fired since 2014.
He said party members who were suspended or expelled were victims of a captured organisation.
The chairman said to avoid past mistakes, Zanu-PF should never make a party member bigger the institution they belong to.
"The party must avoid a situation where an individual or individuals become more important than the party itself. When that happens the party becomes a subject of manipulation. People will be fighting to control the party instead of fighting to grow the party. Many of our people had been misled by those who go around giving money to individuals. That was creating patronage to the extent that some people feel in order to survive in the party you must belong to someone," he said.
Prof Ndlovu said it was his hope that the new dispensation led by Zanu-PF's First Secretary, Emmerson Mnangagwa, does not fall in the trap of creating institutions out of individuals.
"This is where the problem was. The present leadership as I see it, I'm talking about Mnangagwa and the rest seem to be aware of this and I don't think it will happen again. When patronage creates some form of feudalism, it destroys the party," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said his executive was working on uniting Bulawayo structures that had turned into a warzone.
Prof Ndlovu said false accusations will not be tolerated.
"This executive has no programme of expelling anybody. We don't believe in expelling or suspending anyone. If they are people who are misguided they must be corrected and they can be corrected by putting them through some workshops or through disciplinary hearings instead of expelling people because you hate them or because they pose a competition to you. If you have an organisation that invests in expelling people then you have an organisation that is facing death," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said Bulawayo had great optimism on the country's new dispensation calling on residents to embrace the changes.
"The facilitation by the military to make it possible for such a huge change to take place should be appreciated by people because without this facilitation it could have been difficult. I hope people can take advantage of this instead of being cry babies. They should bring themselves in and try to contribute whatever they can positively," he said.
Prof Ndlovu said this in an interview where he revealed that his provincial executive will not waste its energy on expelling or suspending party members.
He said any organisation which focuses its energies on witch-hunts is on a destruction path.
Prof Ndlovu bounced back as the provincial chairman last week following recent Central Committee elections to reinstate members who were fired since 2014.
He said party members who were suspended or expelled were victims of a captured organisation.
The chairman said to avoid past mistakes, Zanu-PF should never make a party member bigger the institution they belong to.
"The party must avoid a situation where an individual or individuals become more important than the party itself. When that happens the party becomes a subject of manipulation. People will be fighting to control the party instead of fighting to grow the party. Many of our people had been misled by those who go around giving money to individuals. That was creating patronage to the extent that some people feel in order to survive in the party you must belong to someone," he said.
Prof Ndlovu said it was his hope that the new dispensation led by Zanu-PF's First Secretary, Emmerson Mnangagwa, does not fall in the trap of creating institutions out of individuals.
"This is where the problem was. The present leadership as I see it, I'm talking about Mnangagwa and the rest seem to be aware of this and I don't think it will happen again. When patronage creates some form of feudalism, it destroys the party," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said his executive was working on uniting Bulawayo structures that had turned into a warzone.
Prof Ndlovu said false accusations will not be tolerated.
"This executive has no programme of expelling anybody. We don't believe in expelling or suspending anyone. If they are people who are misguided they must be corrected and they can be corrected by putting them through some workshops or through disciplinary hearings instead of expelling people because you hate them or because they pose a competition to you. If you have an organisation that invests in expelling people then you have an organisation that is facing death," said Prof Ndlovu.
He said Bulawayo had great optimism on the country's new dispensation calling on residents to embrace the changes.
"The facilitation by the military to make it possible for such a huge change to take place should be appreciated by people because without this facilitation it could have been difficult. I hope people can take advantage of this instead of being cry babies. They should bring themselves in and try to contribute whatever they can positively," he said.
Source - chronicle
