Zanu-PF comes up with strategies to reclaim urban council wards

THE ruling party Zanu-PF has come up with a number of strategies to reclaim local authority urban wards it lost in Matabeleland South Province during the harmonised elections held in July, an official has said.

The party won 12 out of 13 National Assembly seats in the province while President Mnangagwa got a resounding vote in Matabeleland South, following a clean sweep in 2013.

Speaking during the party’s victory celebrations held in Ward 4, Matshiloni in Beitbridge West Constituency, the provincial chairman Cde Rabelani Choeni said the party held a post mortem of the last elections and was ready to address some of the issues which affected it in urban settlements.

He said although they had done well in National Assembly and Presidential elections, it was high time they regained ground in council elections.

“We have taken stock of the last harmonised elections where we had landslide victory in National Assembly and Presidential Elections. However, we need to address issues in urban settlements where we lost a few wards.

“In essence we have the medicine to cure the aliments. We know the issues and we are going to address them. For us to succeed we need to work together from grassroots up to the national level,” said Cde Choeni.

He said Zanu-PF was still strong on the ground.

Cde Choeni said the province would soon start working on a massive party restructuring and mobilisation programme.

“In the next few weeks, we will be on the ground working on our cells, branches, districts and provinces. This is to ensure that we consolidate what we have on the ground and build a bigger support base.

“It is important that we register all our members and match the opposition parties man to man.

“However, this is a process which will be guided by the party’s ethos. We are also happy that some fence sitters have started joining the party, they have realised that we are here to stay and the only institution with people at heart,” said Cde Choeni.

Addressing the same crowd, Beitbridge West parliamentarian Cde Ruth Maboyi said it was important for communities, traditional leaders, and development agencies to work together in rolling out socio-economic development projects.

She said leaders must always consult communities so that they pool resources together with one shared vision.

“For us to move forward as a community, as a people, we must have mutual understanding built on respect and consultation. Let’s have a shared vision of where we want to be in the next few years and we roll out projects in order of priority.

“There are a lot of issues we need to collaborate efforts on, especially on socioeconomic empowerment, water, sanitation and infrastructure development,” she said.