Accreditation of Zanu-PF indaba delegates begins
THE accreditation of delegates expected to attend the 18th Zanu-PF Annual People’s Conference to be held at Goromonzi High School in Mashonaland East Province will start this week, secretary for Information and Publicity Cde Simon Khaya Moyo ( has said.
The announcement comes as preparations for the conference are in their final stages, with the theme having been announced by the Politburo on Wednesday last week.
The annual conference will be held under the theme “Modernise, Mechanise and Grow the Economy Towards Vision 2030”.
According to the party’s website, the conference will run from December 10 to 15.
In a statement, Cde Khaya Moyo said only bona fide delegates will be accredited according to laid-down party regulations.
“In preparation for the forthcoming Zanu-PF 18th National People’s Conference to be held at Goromonzi High School, Mashonaland East Province, in December 2019, the security and accreditation team will be accrediting delegates as reflected per the attached,” he said.
“Only bona fide delegates will be accredited according to laid-down party regulations.”
Delegates set to attend the conference will be accredited at their respective provinces except Politburo members, the Central Committee, local and foreign guests, local and foreign media, ushers and drivers, and officials and security personnel who will be accredited at the party’s headquarters.
Harare province has been divided into technical committees and tasked to contribute $500 000, five beasts, fruits and vegetables towards ensuring the conference is a success.
The party has also set health requirements for delegates attending the conference, with pregnant women being advised not to attend, as well as breastfeeding mothers as children are susceptible to infections among large crowds.
Over 7 000 delegates are expected to attend the annual conference, with at least 2 000 foreign delegates having confirmed their participation.
The conference is expected to consolidate national efforts towards reviving the country’s economy, with President Mnangagwa aggressively pursuing economic recovery through the implementation of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (2018–2020).
The TSP is premised on fiscal consolidation, economic stabilisation, and stimulation of growth and creation of employment.
At the 2018 annual conference, the party came up with a number of resolutions which included the endorsement of President Mnangagwa as the party’s sole presidential candidate in the 2023 elections.
DCCs
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF is working on the amendment of its constitution to include District Coordinating Committees (DCCs) after the Politburo last week okayed their inclusion, legal affairs secretary Cde Munyaradzi Paul Cde Mangwana has said.
The Politburo endorsed the Harare DCC elections held recently, with Bulawayo province now preparing for its elections.
Cde Mangwana said the amendment process will be ratified at the Zanu-PF conference in Goromonzi.
“The amendment procedure has already started and the Politburo had endorsed it and that is why we saw DCC elections being held in Harare and Bulawayo,” he said. “The procedure will be ratified at the forthcoming conference.”
The Politburo endorsed newly-elected Harare’s DCC executive members as part of a restructuring exercise to strengthen the party ahead of the 2023 national elections.
DCCs were reintroduced after the party dissolved the Harare and Bulawayo provincial party structures.
The DCCs are the building blocks of the party structures in the two metropolitan provinces.
DCCs were disbanded in 2012 after it was felt that they had been hijacked by elements that sought to manipulate party structures to foment factionalism and disharmony in the party.
FARMERS have welcomed the 2020 National Budget for prioritising irrigation, agriculture funding and animal disease control, saying this will boost production, ensure food security and reduce food imports.
The farmers said they were eagerly awaiting implementation as previous budget pronoucements did not see the light of day.
Treasury has allocated $1,9 billion to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement with focus on boosting irrigation, promotion of climate smart agriculture and appropriate agriculture funding to guarantee food security.
Drought-proofing measures such as investment in irrigation infrastructure, dam construction, research and extension services and adoption of drought -resistant varieties such as traditional grains, will be put in place during the 2020 agricultural season.
Presenting the 2020 National Budget on Thursday last week, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube allocated $422, 7 million for irrigation, $521 million for veterinary services and $380 million for farmer compensation. Agriculture education and extension services got $340 million.
The Budget also projected a five percent growth in the agriculture sector with prospects of achieving the target pinned on climate smart agriculture.
“There are greater chances that 2019/2020 season will be another bad season. Such developments, if they materialise, may escalate Government expenditures on grain importation, infrastructure rehabilitation and disease control,” said Minister Ncube.
“The 2020 Budget will target irrigable hectarage to guarantee grain production of around 1,8 million tonnes.
“For this purpose, capable farmers with irrigation facilities will be identified with a view of contracting and supporting them to produce required grains specifically for food security. Similarly, the 200 hectares per district irrigation programme will be supported, taking advantage of smart agriculture, which promotes solar irrigation systems.”
Minister Ncube said Government was also creating a fiscal buffer to the tune of $165 million to cater for drought shocks and strengthening the early warning systems.
“The 2020 Budget makes a turning shift from ad-hoc planning to more forward planning, particularly in terms of availability of inputs on the market,” he said.
Minister Ncube said beginning January 2020, the Budget will establish an appropriate financing plan which ensures early build-up and ring-fencing of both local currency resources and foreign exchange in support of domestic inputs producers and importation of inputs.
“This resolves the challenge of agriculture demands competing with other programmes for both domestic and forex resources during the last quarter of the year, which apparently coincides with the start of summer cropping season,” he said.
Over 75 percent of Zimbabwe’s rural population lives in natural regions III, IV and V, where rainfall is erratic and undependable, making rain-fed farming unreliable and risky.
This makes it critical for farmers in these dry regions to supplement natural rains with irrigation to boost yields.
Studies on the impact of such investments on smallholder agriculture have shown that producers using irrigation realise significantly higher incomes than those relying on rain-fed agriculture.
With irrigation, smallholder farmers can grow high value crops, for both the local and export markets, thus effectively participating in the mainstream economy.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union president Mr Abdul Nyathi on Friday said the Budget was the best under the circumstances and would make significant impact if implemented.
“We have always been calling for irrigation interventions so that farmers can produce crops throughout the year,” he said. “We have experienced consecutive droughts and we can no longer rely on rainfed agriculture. There is need to boost irrigation facilities so we can produce enough food and even export.
“The situation in terms of livestock is not good. We have lost cattle to tickborne diseases and this has affected many farmers who no longer have livestock.
“We hope these interventions announced by Minister Ncube will not be shelved until the next Budget but be implemented so we boost productivity in agriculture.”
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said the Zimbabwean economy was agro-based and there was need to focus on agriculture as the backbone of the economy.
“Climate change has had devastating effects on the agriculture sector. Rains have become scarce and unreliable,” he said. “The only way to import substitution is through making use of the available water sources available.
“Irrigation is the only way to go. Long back we used to have a national irrigation fund where farmers would get loans to establish irrigation facilities and pay back at lower interest rates over a long period of time.
“This is how most irrigation schemes started. With irrigation facilities farmers will be able to boost production and even pay back loans.”
Mr Chabikwa said it was disappointing that farmers had lost cattle to tick-borne diseases because of lack of vaccines and dipping chemicals.
“Hopefully, this Budget will ensure vaccines are availed on time and help smallholder farmers look after their livestock,” he said.
Zimbabwe National Women Farmers’ Association Trust president Mrs Depinah Nkomo said irrigation facilities should not only be availed to schemes but Government should ensure every farmer is capacitated to produce at least a hectare of crops under irrigation.
“We welcome the Budget for addressing the challenges we were facing. Issues of funding should be looked into. Funding should be accessible and affordable,” she said.
Some farmers felt that there was need to subsidise input manufacturing companies for every farmer to access affordable inputs.