Republic of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe with First Lady Amai Grace greeting the delegates to the ZANU-PF 12th Annual National People's Conference held in Bulawayo. The party is preparing for elections in 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Zanu-PF gets into election mode
Saturday, 10 December 2011 23:11
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail
Sydney Kawadza
The 12th Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conference, which ended in Bulawayo yesterday, has set the tone for national elections that are scheduled for next year, party spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo has said.
Speaking at the end of the three-day conference, he also said the Presidium would meet to consider provincial recommendations on members to be co-opted into the Politburo and Central Committee.
Cde Gumbo said the party was geared for the forthcoming harmonised elections.
“We are now ready for the elections and can face our enemies, whether it is the MDC formations or their erstwhile financiers,” he said.
“We are ready to put finality to the whole issue.”
Cde Gumbo said the conference switched Zanu-PF into election mode.
“The President has said it. It brings finality to issues that have been raised by our structures.
“We are calling for the expeditious completion of the constitution-making process so that we go for elections and bring an end to the inclusive Government, which is obviously not working for the people of Zimbabwe.
“The President’s speech is a manifesto to our election agenda and this will lead us.”
He emphasised the need to desist from imposing candidates.
“We want to reiterate President Mugabe’s call against the imposition of candidates. People should choose their representatives, whether in Parliament or any other level.”
He said the Presidium would soon convene a meeting to consider recommendations from the provinces on members to be co-opted into the Politburo and Central Committee.
The candidates will replace late Politburo members David Karimanzira, Solomon Mujuru and Kantibhai Patel. Others will be co-opted into the Central Committee.
Doubting Thomases silenced
Saturday, 10 December 2011 22:14
President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe greet delegates at the Zanu-PF 12th National People’s Conference in Bulawayo. In the background is Dr Stan Mudenge, who is taking notes.
THE Zanu-PF conference ended last night managing to put the record straight on two fundamental issues that must leave all doubting Thomases convinced that indeed the game is up.
First, elections are inevitable next year and, second, the indigenisation programme is a serious process meant to mark Zimbabwe’s rebirth as a black African country.
The 12th National People’s Conference indeed set the ball rolling by prescribing that the party must without fail start to work on its election manifesto whose main agenda hinged on the indigenisation drive.
Presenting the Zanu-PF Central Committee Report at the official opening of the event last week, President Mugabe emphasised the need to give black indigenous people control of the economy.
This followed last year’s adoption of a raft of measures aimed at ensuring that all foreign companies which have been plundering resources at the expense of the general populace relinquish a certain portion of their shareholding or profits to Zimbabweans.
According to the policy on indigenisation and economic empowerment, all foreign-owned companies are obliged to surrender a 51 percent stake to locals.
The programme comes at an opportune time as it seeks to bring to finality the economic empowerment drive which started gathering pace at the turn of the new millennium.
From 2000, Zanu-PF has embarked on the noble land reform exercise to ensure that the black majority own land which was seized by European colonial settlers.
To date, over 400 000 families have been resettled as either A1 or A2 model farmers.
Despite wide criticism, especially from enraged Western powers, the programme is now bearing fruit as witnessed by the new farmers’ production of about 1,8 million tonnes of maize last season against a national demand of 2,4 million tonnes.
Last season’s production was a huge leap from the previous season where about 1,2 million tonnes were produced by the new farmers.
The farmers also managed to produce over 140 million kg of tobacco, which was double the previous season’s crop.
Most of the country’s arable land was previously in the hands of about 4 500 white commercial farmers for about a century.
This imbalance was only addressed with the launch of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in 2000.
However, it is the latest empowerment drive that has sent opponents of Zanu-PF scurrying for cover, confirming that the party is still a force to reckon with.
The party has on several occasions reiterated that the indigenisation programme is not a political gimmick but, like the land reform exercise, is a serious programme aimed at economically empowering indigenous Zimbabweans.
In his foreword in the Central Committee Report to the National People’s Conference, President Mugabe said there was no room for cosmetic changes and the country must strive for real transformation.
“The process of transformation which we seek through the policy of indigenisation and economic empowerment must have both depth and breadth: it must touch and transform hitherto marginalised communities; it must touch and reposition our youth who face a myriad of sanctions-related challenges, including high levels of unemployment; it must give a real stake to the workers themselves, a key factor of production but all along undermined by racial settler capitalism,” said the Zanu-PF First Secretary and President.
He said indigenisation sought to unleash new production and social relations that would transform the people from being a powerless working class into sovereign individuals with control over natural resources, industry and commerce.
The President bemoaned the slow pace in the drafting of a new constitution that is expected to pave the way for a referendum and then elections.
“It is sad that this referendum which must pave way for the elections and should have been completed by now, continues to be stalled, if not forestalled by our adversaries who do not want to see their new found comforts under the inclusive Government overturned by motions of democracy,” said President Mugabe.
“There is fear of defeat now dictating their stances. Shame, shame, shame! Elections have to come soon this coming year! The GNU (Government of National Unity) has become a drag on this nation; it must give way to an elected administration that is free to govern unhindered, free to pursue definite policies for the betterment of our people.”
Zanu-PF has already endorsed President Mugabe as its candidate in the next election to battle it out with his arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T).
The MDC-T has been trying to sell job creation programmes which have dismally failed to gain popularity, leaving Zanu-PF to emerge as the true people's party.
Zanu-PF has set the tone for fresh elections to terminate the three-legged inclusive Government.
In light of the realisation that the inclusive Government is ineffective, Zanu-PF says elections are the only way to go.
Zanu-PF National Chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, in his summary of the Central Committee report, said people needed to register to vote.
“There must be no imposition of candidates during the electoral process. People must select the leaders they want and they must register as voters to enable them to defend their gains through their vote,” said Cde Khaya Moyo.
In his report in the same document, the Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Cde Didymus Mutasa said most party goals, as guided by the Mutare conference, had been achieved during the course of this year.
The Central Committee report to the conference that ran under the theme “Defend National Sovereignty, Consolidate Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment” highlighted the need for elections next year and emphasised the need to move with speed on indigenising the economy.
12th conference reinvigorates Zanu-PF
Saturday, 10 December 2011 22:10
Members of the December 12 Movement, led by Cde Coltrane Chimurenga, attended the Zanu-PF 12th National People’s Conference in Bulawayo last week
by Kudakwashe Bwititi
Prophets of doom who had predicted that the 12th Zanu-PF Annual People’s Conference would turn into a run of the mill and dreary affair were left with egg cascading down their faces as the convention lived beyond its billing with vibrant debates and articulate presentations characterising the crucial convention.
The conference, which was officially opened by President Mugabe, not only brought life to the city of Bulawayo but reinvigorated Zanu-PF in its endeavour to bury the MDC-T, which is insolently riding on the wave of imaginary success in the 2008 elections.
In a befitting opening that was preceded by statements from the host provincial chairman Cde Isaac Dakamela and Bulawayo provincial governor Cde Cain Mathema, liberation movements from the region gave their solidarity messages, which captured their unreserved support for President Mugabe and his candidature for elections expected next year.
The parties came short of describing the MDC-T as a parasite that needs to be fumigated and blown out from its position as partner in the inclusive Government.
In his candid solidarity message endorsed by President Jacob Zuma, African National Congress secretary-general Mr Gwede Mantashe said his party, which has won every presidential election in South Africa since attaining power in 1994, was prepared to offer Zanu-PF tips to win the impending elections.
Mr Mantashe said the ANC would support Zanu-PF as an obligation to create a vanguard against the Western hegemony that resulted in the fall and destabilisation of countries such as Libya and Tunisia.
“The fact that 13 countries on the continent recognised the National Transitional Council (in Libya) despite the AU setting out the parameters for such recognition confirms that progressive forces on the continent must step up the engagement of those who chose to be proxy states for powerful nations to find it unattractive to break ranks.
“If we are to succeed the progressive forces must stop bickering amongst themselves.
“There must be a relation of trust, based on honest and candid feedback to each other and mutual respect,” he said.
After the solidarity speeches the conference focus turned to President Mugabe’s eagerly awaited opening address.
In his extraordinary speech, which lasted more than two hours, President Mugabe explained that the conference would be a serious affair and not a forum to discuss women’s affairs, in a dig aimed at Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
“We are a party of the people; they are a party of women. We must go out there and win the people using your ideas, using your words,” he said.
President Mugabe laced his speech with his usual humour, candidness and exactitude as he explained that Zimbabwe would never fall into the trap that gulped Libya, which lost its leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to the intricate vices of Western hegemony.
“Countries like our own Zimbabwe which is so richly endowed with the minerals and thus so dangerously marked by global imperialism, need to remain very vigilant and always ready to sacrifice for the defence of our independence and national resources.
“Against this naked intrusion, Africa was both unprepared and ill-prepared. Africa was disunited. The already weak continent weakened itself further,” he said.
President Mugabe also reiterated that the Zanu-PF does not condone violence and urged party members to refrain from coercion in the run-up to the elections that are likely to be held next year.
“We in Zimbabwe, we in Zanu-PF realising that unity requires that we be orderly, that we also accord each other, recognising the need for peace amongst us. We in Zanu-PF must renounce and denounce violence completely.
“We must reject it,” he said.
After the speech, Vice Presidents Cde Joice Mujuru and Cde John Nkomo delivered their vote of thanks explaining the need for the party to remain focused in the run-up to the elections.
On Friday, solidarity messages continued to pour in, with Pan African Youth Union president Andile Lungisa, war veterans’ chairman Cde Jabulani Sibanda and Zanu-PF representatives in South Africa and the United Kingdom among the presenters.
On Friday afternoon, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, Dr Obert Mpofu and Dr Joseph Made made presentations on the indigenisation and economic empowerment, performance of the national economy and the state of agriculture respectively.
In his presentation on Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, Cde Kasukuwere said Zimbabweans were not maximising on the opportunities offered by the indigenisation and empowerment law.
He said vast opportunities for empowerment existed in the transport, energy, manufacturing, financial, tourism, construction and engineering, services, trading, telecommunications, entertainment, agriculture and mining sectors.
In the mining sector, Minister Kasukuwere proposed the setting up of a revolving fund to finance small-scale miners to buy equipment.
“Setting up a small-scale miners’ equipment programme, a revolving fund can be established. Interest shall be at 10 percent per annum. Small-scale miners will access funding to buy equipment such as water pumps, generators, stamp mills and compressors,” he said.
Cde Kasukuwere said the country should leverage on the fact that Zimbabwe has the best human resources base in Africa and the best natural resources per capita in the world.
He said the implementation of the empowerment drive would be hinged on Community Share Ownership Trusts, the employee share ownership scheme and the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund (NIEEF).
The Community Share Ownership Trusts would focus on areas of investment for schools and scholarships, health institutions and care, agriculture, road and water works, infrastructure, poverty relief and economic development projects.
Cde Kasukuwere said the NIEEF would “finance developmental projects similar to CSOT in areas with limited or no resources to facilitate equitable distribution of resources throughout the country and to warehouse resources for future generations.
He said some of the empowerment programmes that have benefited the youth included Old Mutual’s US$10 million fund, Stanbic US$20 million fund and US$3 million from CBZ.
He said the challenges that faced indigenisation include resistance by international companies to comply and the negative local and international Press.
Dr Made emphasised the need to expand irrigation projects to counter the effects of climate change and unreliable rainfall patters.
He challenged farmers to fully utilise their land, as Government would not hesitate to redistribute land. “Every farmer should give it their best, whether they are A1 or A2 or they risk losing their land,” he said.
Cde Mpofu said the growth of the economy hinged on the mining sector and focus should be directed at ensuring that mining companies process their raw materials locally.
Kuda Bwititi is writing from Bulawayo.
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