Mash West must shed infamous tag: Machacha

ZANU-PF Mashonaland West Province should shed the infamous tag of being a volatile political centre which has a high leadership turnover, an official has said.

In recent years, no provincial party chairperson in Mashonaland West has seen through their full term of office.

Addressing a provincial inter-district conference in Chinhoyi last week, Chitepo Ideological College principal Cde Munyaradzi Machacha said the unpredictable change in provincial leadership was worrying.

“As Mashonaland West Province, you have called yourselves Mash Best and there are a lot of things you have done as a province to show that you are the best,” said Cde Machacha.

“However, on other things you have really messed up, especially on the issue of leadership, where people jostle for leadership positions. I don’t know if there is a chairman that has survived a full term in the province.”

Former national political commissar Cde Webster Shamu survived only two years of his five-year term as chairman, while Central Committee member Cde Philip Chiyangwa also did not last the distance. Other casualties were the late Cde John Mafa, Mr Temba Mliswa, reinstated chair Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi, the late Cde Robert Sikanyika and Cde Ephraim Chengeta. Mashonaland West, Cde Machacha said, had the worst record in terms of leadership turnover and there was need to take corrective measures.

“Otherwise, there are a lot of things that you do well to lay claim to the tag Mash Best,” he said.

“These include your excellent hosting of the Annual People’s Conference in 2014, which other provinces had to emulate.

“Also exceptional is your party organisational capacity.”

Cde Machacha is part of the Zanu-PF commissariat department, which is going around all the provinces explaining the state of the party, the new dispensation and galvanising the party ahead of the harmonised elections.