Midlands endorses President, adds voice to Extraordinary Congress call
ZANU-PF Midlands Province yesterday reaffirmed support for President Mugabe’s candidature in next year’s harmonised elections and resolved that the revolutionary party hold an Extraordinary Congress to confirm the position that has been unanimously adopted by the party’s other nine provinces.
In an interview, Zanu-PF Midlands provincial chairperson Cde Daniel Mackenzie Ncube confirmed the resolutions yesterday following a Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting held on Sunday.
“We had our meeting and the main resolution we made was to request to the party that an Extraordinary Congress be held this year to reaffirm President Mugabe as the sole candidate for the party in the 2018 harmonised elections and also show solidarity with the President who is also the First Secretary of the party,” Cde Ncube said.
He added that they had also discussed the ongoing biometric voter registration exercise with calls to enhance awareness among party supporters to register to vote in next year’s elections.
The resolution by Midlands follows similar resolutions that were made by the revolutionary party’s provinces across the country to confirm President Mugabe as their candidate for next year’s elections.
There were also calls to amend the party’s constitution to reflect a resolution by the party’s Women’s League to have a female Vice President.
The Extraordinary Congress will replace the Annual National People’s Conference that was scheduled to be held in Gwanda in December.
The regular congress was due to be held in 2019.
Mashonaland West, Midlands, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South provinces affirmed the First Secretary, President Mugabe, as the ruling party’s candidate on Saturday while the remaining provinces passed the resolution on Sunday.
On Sunday, Harare’s PCC resolved to amend the 2014 party constitution “to accommodate issues to do with the Youth and Women’s Leagues”, with the resolution to have a female Vice President taking centre stage.
The province’s spokesperson, Dr Abicia Ushewokunze, said President’s candidature for next year’s elections was non-negotiable.
“That President Mugabe is the sole candidate is not a debate, but idzokororo (repetition). We resolved that the constitution be amended as there are a number of issues yet to be addressed, especially the Women’s League resolution on Vice Presidents.
“All conferences have passed this resolution, the party’s 10 provinces agreed and the President apologised for this oversight at the party HQ recently. In future people will think resolutions are just passed for the sake of concluding a conference yet this is not the case,” Dr Ushewokunze said.
Other resolutions made by the PEC include the ironing out of issues to do with the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) and the Registrar-General’s Office.
Senior officials who attended the meeting include Harare Provincial Affairs Minister Miriam Chikukwa, chairperson Charles Tavengwa, political commissar Shadreck Mashayamombe and members of the Central Committee.
Other provinces have similarly followed suit.