ZANU-PF Congress Takes Off in Harare

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe greets Politburo members of the ZANU-PF ruling party on Friday, April 4, 2008.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Zanu-PF congress takes off

By Sydney Kawadza
Courtesy of the Zimbabwe Herald

Zanu-PF’s leadership converges in Harare for the Fifth National People’s Congress amid hopes for better fortunes after experiencing one of its toughest years in post-independent elections.

The congress — to run under the theme "United in Defence of our Natural Resources and People’s Economic Empowerment" — gets underway today with a Politburo meeting at the party’s headquarters.

Central Committee members from the party’s 10 administrative provinces are also expected to meet at the same venue tomorrow.

An estimated 10 400 delegates, who include foreign representatives from sister political parties from all over the world, are expected to start arriving for the congress, which is held once every five years.

The President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, Cde Mugabe, will lead proceedings at the Harare International Conference Centre on Friday when he delivers the opening address to the congress.

In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF acting national political commissar Cde Richard Ndlovu said the party was tying up a few logistical and administrative loose ends.

"We are putting final touches and still accrediting delegates from Matabeleland North Province, where the programme was progressing well at Lupane.

"We have, however, completed the process in the other nine provinces and we expect delegates to start arriving in Harare tomorrow (today) ahead of the Politburo and Central Committee meetings," he said.

In Harare, accreditation of delegates and other participants at party headquarters began yesterday morning but not so smoothly.

Delegates complained that they experienced such problems whenever there was a congress or conference and called on the party to be better organised.

"They knew we were going to have a congress, so why is it so difficult?

"We are being harassed by the people who are supposed to be assisting us," complained a man who identified himself as Cde Mutasa.

Yesterday, Cde Ndlovu could not give full details on the official programme, which will be released after the Politburo and Central Commi-ttee meetings.

The congress will confirm Central Committee, Women’s League and Youth League leaders on Saturday.

There are new faces in the Presidium following Cde John Nkomo and Cde Simon Khaya Moyo’s nominations as Vice President-designate and national chairman-designate.

Cde Mugabe was overwhelmingly endorsed to retain his position as President and First Secretary.

Cde Joice Mujuru will also return as Vice President and Second Secretary.

Observers and party members alike will be eagerly waiting to see the Politburo line-up the Presidium will come up with.

A review of the party’s performance since the 2004 congress is likely to hog the limelight.

It is in this context that Zanu-PF will look at its worst ever performance in post-independent elections in 2008.

The party lost its majority in the House of Assembly for the first time in 28 years.

Zanu-PF, however, secured an overall parliamentary majority thanks to its good performance in the Senate polls, and also won the popular vote in last year’s elections.

The harmonised polls, observers said, exposed the structural shortcomings in Zanu-PF.

Political analysts yesterday said Zanu-PF should be honest enough to seriously introspect at congress.

"The revolutionaries went to sleep in the past five years and they received a rude awakening as the March 29 harmonised elections results started coming out.

"The leadership was so comfortable that some of them did not even bother to campaign, let alone work with the people in their constituencies," one analyst said.

Political analyst Dr Maxwell Hove said Zanu-PF failed for the first time to live up to its core business of defending the country’s sovereignty.

"Zanu-PF’s core business, as revolutionaries, is to defend Zimbabwe’s freedom of 1980 and maintain its independence and sovereignty.

"This they would do by winning elections, stay in Government and implementing policies that are in line with the revolution; that is, policies that protect our social justice such as the land reform programme," he said.

"Zanu-PF failed in the March 29 2008 harmonised elections. They won the Senate but they did not win an absolute majority in the presidential election," he said.

Dr Hove said although Zanu-PF salvaged the June 27 presidential election run-off, they also found themselves in a constitutional glitch, which militated against the separation of power.

"According to the Constitution, Cabinet ministers should be parliamentarians and this hybrid of Presidential and parliamentary powers forced Zanu-PF into the Global Political Agreement and subsequently the inclusive Government," he said.

Another analyst said the Zanu-PF leadership fell into a comfort zone that cost them last year.

"The enemy rightly took advantage of Zanu-PF’s laxity and penetrated its defences.

"The illegal sanctions imposed also exposed the revolutionary party, hence the dismal performance last year," he said.

He said factionalism and handpicking of candidates had hurt the party.

Politburo members Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni broke ranks to form their own party.

Divisions also emerged in the provinces with Harare taking over a year to elect a leadership.

The divisions were also seen in the Mashonaland West Women’s League.

"The 2007 Extraordinary Congress exposed serious factionalism and this was made evident during the restructuring exercise ahead of the congress," the analyst said.

He said the problem actually split the Zanu-PF vote with President Mugabe openly acknowledging at various forums a deliberate attempt within the party to lose the election.

"President Mugabe has talked about this and he has described the erstwhile members as ‘vana bhora musango’."

"This led to the formation of an inclusive Government and the question for the delegates is whether this is an ideal situation for the revolutionary party or not?

"Are the revolutionaries ready to dine with the people they believe are a representation of Western imperialism?"

Observers last year noted that the imposition of parliamentary candidates had also put off voters.

The congress comes after the party restructured its organs from cell to national level.

A new youth leadership has, for the first time, been elected in line with the 30 years age limit stipulated in Zanu-PF’s constitution.