Its politics, period!
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 assemblies’ 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 democracy 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 21 September, the party’s national acting spokesperson Mike Bimha said
provincial elections were being postponed to focus the party 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 cases of intra-party
confrontations within Zanu PF.
Worryingly, ZPP noted that the 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 take up the District Coordinator Chairperson position, were in a
brawl.
Makombe allegedly organized Zanu PF youths to disrupt a meeting convened
by Kahondo.