By Nick Mangwana
Our
constitution is very clear on one thing; bringing the Party into disrepute is a
disciplinary offence. How many people including those in top leadership can
look at themselves in the mirror without embarrassment at what they see? We
have witnessed comrades calling Press Conferences with the sole purpose of
denigrating each other and our stomachs have turned. We keep calling each other “comrades”. Where
is the camaraderie in all this?
For we know the camaraderie is defined as, “a
spirit of friendship and loyalty among members of a group.” For me the
operative word is “loyalty”. We are bringing the Party into disrepute cdes. We
cannot fill acres and acres of space in print and electronic media with attacks
and counter attacks on each other. It is counter-revolutionary. We are a
revolutionary party.
Is Zanu PF
imploding? Hell, no! Water will always find its level no matter what the
container. So things will level off in our Revolutionary Party at some point.
We just don’t believe the people have the patience to tarry for that day while
we feud and argue ad infinitum. History
is littered with revolutions that ate their children. We know ours will not be
one of those. But it has to take us re-configuring our compasses and
re-calibrating our priorities.
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| ZANU PF is the People's Choice and will not implode. Water will always find its level no matter what the container |
There was an editorial in the Herald a few
weeks ago. One of the key questions asked was whether people had forgotten what
happened to UNIP and Malawi Congress Party. This was a key question and one
really on point. We should never be complacent and forget that we can
experience such a fate as a party if we take people for granted. 2008 was a
wake- up call. And in 2013 we heeded the call but having suffered the
humiliation of serving with the very limited and out of depth Tsvangirayi.
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| In Zimbabwe there is a dead and token opposition- nothing to scream home to mama about |
A Party can lose power because it’s no longer
fashionable. But more importantly a Party can lose power because it has become
detached from the people. We hope we will never lose sight of that. In Zimbabwe there is token opposition now.
Nothing to scream home to mama about. Have we decided now to fill this void
left by the opposition through finding our own opposition from within? Whilst
that might help with a robust debate in the Party, is it not self-defeating? Zanu
PF is a party that attained unparalleled success on the backs of ordinary
people and the peasantry folks. If we have a totem pole then these are the very
ones who have to be at the top of it. We need to prioritise the welfare of the
common folks.
Since Zim
Asset was launched in October 2013 we have had 3 Conferences. The 14th
People’s Conference in Chinhoyi themed “ZIM
ASSET: Growing the Economy for Empowerment and Employment”. The Youth Conference in August 2014 themed,
“ZIM-ASSET: Growing the Economy for Youth Empowerment and Employment”, and the 6th Women’s
Conference was also Zim Asset themed. But this seems to be the only time that
we really talk about Zim Asset. Even during the conference itself the reportage
is dominated by power games. Our resolutions are hardly Zim Asset themed. The
intelligently crafted People’s blue print is under siege. We don’t seem
concerned to defend it. Is it that we don’t believe it is worth defending or is
it that we believe a good policy can defend itself. That would be wrong on both
accounts.
A day after we won the election there was a capital flight from the
country. Before we even uttered a word in policy formulation the liquidity
challenges had already started crunching. Economic sabotage? Of course! Smart
Sanctions? Oh yeah. But at the heart of all this is the management of
perception. We are not naïve to believe
that substance will ever prevail over perception! It doesn’t work like that.
Perception will always prevail over substance but the combination of both is
lethal for us. Zim Asset is being
maligned left, right and centre. What we presented as the hope of the people
has been turned into a curse acronym. Jokes and gags have been composed on it.
And all we can talk about is “faction this, faction that”. Our people, do they eat factions? Do they
even care about factions?
Conferences come and go. From there what happens to
the resolutions? We go back to our power games and forget about the people. Or
maybe we don’t because we need the people to use as pawns in our power games!
The President was asked on the eve of the election whether when elected he will
serve a full term. His response was that he will not cheat the people. He said
that if we elected him, he will fulfil our mandate. Well cdes, he was retained.
The term has just completed its first year. We still have 4 years to go. Four
years in which to deliver our promises.
One year is already gone and we have to stir the ship back on course. A
bit of focus back on Zim Asset would help.
To some these power games might be
amusing. To the media they may be fascinating. But to the people, the real Zimbabwean
women and children whose only hope is this Party; there is nothing amusing
about these power games.
For there is
nothing amusing about being hungry, being penniless and have your children look
at you with hollow but desperate eyes and yet you can’t deliver. You turn
around and think. Who shall help me bring hope to my progeny? They look up to
the Party. No, they don’t find it
amusing at all.
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Nick Mangwana is the chairman of the ZANU PF UK Chapter
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