PREPARATIONS for this year’s harmonised elections have moved a gear up with both Zanu PF and the MDC-T dispatching high-powered delegations to some of their political hotbeds with a clear mandate to urge party members to put aside their differences and unite for the task ahead.
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Last week, a three-member Zanu PF delegation comprising national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, political commissar Webster Shamu and secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa toured Bulawayo Province following violent intra-party clashes that led to the arrest of six party youths early last month.
Zanu PF has not won a single parliamentary seat in Bulawayo since 2000 and the latest disturbances, which have also reportedly spread to Matabeleland North and South, have caused sleepless nights for the party’s top leadership.
Said Moyo after his tour of Bulawayo: “Our mission to Bulawayo has been a tremendous success. We were a listening delegation and we listened to the views of all concerned and we are delighted that people spoke openly, frankly and no one showed any disrespect to anyone.
“The views expressed came from the leadership as to how we proceed to organise the party and ready ourselves for winning the coming harmonised elections. We were very impressed by the frankness of all those who spoke. We feel very proud of how things have gone in terms of our mission.
“We are confident that the outcome of all these deliberations will strengthen the party and gear ourselves for a resounding winning of the coming elections. There is no doubt that Zanu PF will win the elections.”
Zanu PF, since last year, has been fighting similar intermittent fissures in Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland and in party leader President Robert Mugabe’s own backyard, Mashonaland West province. Most of the clashes have mainly been centred on alleged imposition of candidates, corruption and interference by top party officials in grassroots politics.
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The MDC-T has also dispatched its national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa on a similar mission to some of the party’s troubled provinces — Mashonaland West, East and Central, Midlands, Masvingo and Manicaland — to rally its ducks into a single file ahead of this year’s elections.
“It’s now all systems go and we have to unite and win the elections. In Mashonaland East, we now have a new structure which is now fully constituted,” said Chamisa.
“We are fusing together our structures and organising is not only about chanting slogans, but energising the organs of the party. The beauty is that we are one family and raring to go.
“So far, the party has tried to mend differences in Bulawayo, Manicaland, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Midlands, among other areas, to ensure unity before elections.”
