Yesterday Zanu PF announced a raft of election rules set to effectively bar, among other groups, new comers and Young Turks from rising within party structures ahead of their December elective congress.
NewsDay Editorial
This is a sad development in Zimbabwean politics bearing in mind that Zanu PF is the ruling party and what happens within it has a bearing on national politics and economic development.
In this country if Zanu PF sneezes the nation catches flu.
The move by the party to bar those aspiring to get into the party’s central committee and women’s league effectively symbolises the party’s desire to retain the status quo.
This means that deadwood in the party will remain entrenched in positions of power and by implication; they remain as decision-makers at national level.
This is sad indeed because it means that change in Zimbabwe is a long way off.
The old guard in the party is still entrenched in the liberation war mode that ended three decades ago.
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New blood would have given the party the impetus for revitalisation and the ripple effects would have been felt at national level.
But what has come out of their resolution speaks volumes about the party’s intention to drag the nation back 30 years. We need change and only fresh ideas and fresh blood can make that a reality.
The old guard in Zanu PF has failed us in this regard and it is very sad indeed that they want to continue dragging us away from development.
Some of the old guard forget that they joined the party as youths and rose through the ranks because the environment was conducive for them to do so.
Why should they be cruel to the extent that they do not want to groom others as was done to them?
The answer is simple, they fear change.
But change is for the benefit of both the party and the nation. Change gives the nation the ability to move from one situation to another.
At present our failures are largely due to our inability to change with the moving global trends.
Ironically, we have been pulled back by ideologies reflecting that we are 34 years away from modern reality.
Change, in the form of Young Turks and new blood, would have allowed Zanu PF to grow, to learn and to thrive.
This would, inevitably, have cascaded down to government structures and the nation since Zanu PF is the national decision-maker.
But the old guard would have none of it. They want the nation to remain in the past where the nation was fighting colonialism that ended 34 years ago.
The decision to bar fresh blood from rising within the party ranks smacks of greed, selfishness and myopia. It is a futile attempt to freeze time and to entrap the nation in that frozen time. The nation needs change.
