It’s politricks all over

SEPTEMBER is the last month before Zanu PF holds its crucial annual conference.

Each time the party holds the conference, the preparations take centre stage and the country somewhat goes on pause.

This is because a large number of those in government are members of the ruling party and the conference is a chance to consolidate their positions in the party as they prepare for the elective congress, which is slated for 2022, just a year before national elections.

Zanu PF is going to have its elective congress in December next year where the party is expected to elect a new national executive.

The provinces are already preparing for their elections ahead of the congress, with all the leagues including the main, youth and women’s elections expected to be held by this October, before the party goes to its conference.

It is so much like a drove fighting for a chance on the feeding trough!

And as clear as it is that the ruling party supersedes the operations of government, it is also apparent that for one to enjoy the extravagance that comes with being in government, they have to have a strategic place in the party structures.

With its pseudo democratic approach, Zanu PF continues to set up grassroots structures that then get the chance to attend and determine the outcome of the conference.

But in essence, it is mostly the senior officials in the district, provincial and national structures who run the show and determine who is in these grassroots structures.

As a result, there is often heightened violence during the run-up to the conference as is already being witnessed.

So severe is the violence that senior party officials often end up intervening.

On September 21, the party’s national acting spokesperson Mike Bimha said provincial elections were being postponed to focus the party attention on preparations for the party’s annual conference.

This was after the provincial election campaigns had, according to

NewsDay, “been marred by factionalism, smear campaigns and were threatening to turn bloody while also exposing deep-rooted factionalism in the party”.

Throughout the month of September, ZPP documented several cases of intra-party confrontations within Zanu PF.

Worryingly, ZPP noted that Zanu PF party officials continued to abuse State resources for their party campaigns.

For example, in Buhera North, the incumbent Member of Parliament, William Mutomba had to call in police at Dorowa to disrupt an agricultural show that his party rival, Philip Guyo, had sponsored.

Far from Buhera North, in Wedza, two Zanu PF officials, one Kahondo and Lovemore Makombe, who are all aspiring to assume the district co-ordinating committee chairperson position, were in a brawl.

Makombe allegedly organised Zanu PF youths to disrupt a meeting convened by Kahondo.