7th Zanu-PF Congress: A journey in democracy and constitutionalism

THE recently held Central Committee elections confirm Zanu-PF’s propeople leadership style. Some made it and others did not, but one outstanding takeaway from the elections is that Zanu-PF and the masses won. There were no losers, actually, our internal democracy never produces individual winners and losers. It is the party that always wins. Democracy won the day

Results of the Central Committee elections have not been contested yet and this demonstrates our members’ embracement of the outcomes of our internal processes. Without doubt, this is symptomatic of a mature revolutionary party, which is incessantly reorganising itself for posterity. This is a mark of discipline, which gives sacrosanct value to the voice of the people.

I am grateful to the people of Umguza for nominating me into the Central Committee uncontested. It is so humbling to be given another mandate to serve the party I love so dearly. In the same vein, the people of Umguza, the whole of Matabeleland North and the rest of the country have declared the uncontested candidature of our President Cde Dr Emmerson Dambudzo

Mnangagwa for the 2023 elections.

An answered democratisation prayer

I have long prayed for that day when our colleagues in the opposition will emulate ZanuPF’s approach to embracing electoral outcomes and respecting the will of the people. There is dignity in conceding defeat and working closely with those who are elected into office on the basis of public popularity. It is now an established position in Zanu-PF that those who fail to make it into public office should work closely with elected office bearers.

Symbolically, in the Second Republic we have imported that trait into our national body politic. This explains the formation of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD). This way, policy suggestions, even from those who oppose us, are tabled and a Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) is established from merits presented. For that reason, in 2008, we reached out to the opposition and a Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed. That era ushered in a path to rational power contestation.

However, that route was short-lived due to the continued factional degeneration of the MDC. There was a relationship breakdown between Zanu-PF and MDC, and this destroyed the rapport President Mnangagwa was establishing with our long-time opponent.

It will be recalled that President Mnangagwa even reached out to the late MDC leader Dr Morgan Tsvangirai at a very precarious time, when the man was on his deathbed. This was a gesture which shocked the rest of the world.

This demonstration of kindness by President Mnangagwa helped eradicate our yesteryear’s deep polarisation. President Mnangagwa has continued to wage a war against toxic political tendencies. He has demonstrated that beyond political differences, we can relate at a humane level as Zimbabweans and abort our conflicting ideologies to realise oneness, which we fought for in our struggle for independence.

Unfortunately, Tsvangirai’s departure closed the curtain on prospects of sober fraternal contestation of power. He left a fragmented opposition, which has created a poorly constituted space for real political competition. After Tsvangirai, Zanu-PF inherited a social media frenzied opposition that has no regard for constitutionalism and grassroots-based mobilisation.

In as much as Tsvangirai never posed a huge threat to Zanu-PF’s prominence, he presented a mature opposition to our party.

He ran MDC through a constitution. In as much as his party did not have robust structures like ours, his outfit had an organised mobilisation setup which was befitting of a small party aspiring for power. Ironically, Nelson Chamisa has proven to be more dictatorial from the terraces of power and one wonders the authoritarianism Zimbabwe would have experienced had he been in ZanuPF’s place.

While we prepare for our 7th congress, we are disappointed to have excessively invested in a routine process, which will make us sail through into the 2023 elections with very thin and narrow competition. At this point, I should confess that I miss the maturity and democratic rigour that came with Tsvangirai’s MDC into Zimbabwean politics. I will not forgive the circumstances that have subjected our colossal party to the mundanity of having to deal with a political Johnny-come-lately, Nelson Chamisa.

Regardless of his mercenary role in MDC’s shameful fight against the land reform, I miss Tsvangirai for the democratisation he introduced to our opposition body politic. However, it is unfortunate that the prosperity-anchored path of the Second Republic will not give rise to another Tsvangirai, whose popularity rapidly grew due to the effects of the illegal sanctions his party brought to Zimbabwe. President Mnangagwa’s endorsement at the 7th Zanu-PF Congress and his impending victory in 2023 secure Zimbabwe from the perils of global sabotage we have suffered during two decades of illegal sanctions. Therefore, those who invited sanctions and expected our economy to collapse are set for a massive disappointment.

Pathological democracy denialism

We should have seen it coming when young Chamisa elbowed out Dr Thokozani Khupe and later his rejection of Zanu-PF’s resounding victory in 2018 at the instigation of erstwhile imperial powers. His ill-guided pronouncement of the people’s will as illegitimate in 2018 posed an insult to the public’s confidence in Zimbabwe’s democracy. Rejecting outcomes of any election is tantamount to denigrating the constitutional provisions which give life to electoral processes at both party and national levels.

However, our toddler and melodramatic party, the “Triple C”, has no constitution to talk of in the first place. At some point, they confused their election alliance with legal entity status until the courts came in and took their legion of lawyers back to class.

Then it was laid bare that the MDC-Alliance was no legal persona, meaning that it was legally non-existent. Logically, this made Senator Douglas Mwonzora assume legal custody of the “real” MDC, leaving pastor Chamisa to form a constitutionless body called CCC as if to gesticulate some “Constitutional Crisis Circus”.

To justify their illegality, they constantly argued that they have people on their side and their place in history will not be determined by precedents from “captured courts”. Such hypocrisy demonstrates the fraudulent manipulation of the notion of “the people” to evade principles of democracy and constitutionalism. The constitutional paranoia of the Triple C is alarming, especially considering the party in its former life purported to be of a deep-rooted democratic alignment.

The legality of the congress

The 7th Zanu-PF Congress is a constitutionally summoned assembly. The Zanu-PF Constitution, in Article 5, Section 25, states that the party shall convene an ordinary congress once every five years. Subsection 2 further states: “The Secretary for Administration shall, at least three months before the due date, send a notice of convening Congress to all members, which notice shall state the date and the venue.” This has been done already.

Then the Zanu-PF party constitution, in article 5 Section 23, provides that there shall be a National People’s Congress, which shall be the supreme organ of the party. Article 5 Section 24 states that the National People’s Congress shall be the supreme policy-making organ of the party; elect the President and First Secretary; elect members of the Central Committee; formulate, pronounce and declare all policies of the party; formulate and issue directives, rules and regulations to all organs of the party; approve the financial statements of accounts; be the supreme and ultimate authority for the implementation and supervision of the policies, directives, rules and regulations of the party; have the power and authority to amend the party constitution; and consider resolutions submitted to the secretary for administration. Clearly, Zanu-PF remains foregrounded in its rules and respects them entirely. The 7th Zanu-PF Congress is an epitome of our adherence to democracy and constitutionalism.

* Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is Zanu-PF’s secretary for administration in the Politburo.