WHEN ZANU took over the reins on April 18 1980, the eternal connection between the legendary Party and the people was consolidated.
The Party spoke, acted and delivered.
It was born to attend to the wishes of the masses, to continuously win and be driven by success.
Since then, the revolutionary party has dominated the political landscape even in the wake of spirited attempts by the country’s erstwhile colonisers to regain ownership and control of the means of production.
But 2016 has, until the timely intervention of President Robert Mugabe, provided an invidious position for ZANU PF.
It has been a year of halves, both of which have served to consolidate the Party’s position in Zimbabwean politics.
It started with the formation of yet another opposition outfit in the form of Joice Mujuru’s ZimPF party and the disturbing public spats between war veterans and some senior party officials.
That has all been solved through President Mugabe’s golden touch.
There is more.
2018 beckons and another victory for the party is in the offing.
Slowly, the Party is regrouping, eagerly waiting for another stint at State House and governance.
Suddenly the spirit of 1980 is back and pervading a landscape that had threatened to tear the Party apart.
In 1980, ZANU PF sought to build a solid Party driven by the desire to judiciously attend to the wishes of the people and serve them diligently.
ZANU PF’s number one policy, according to its 1980 manifesto, was to liberate Zimbabwe from colonial bondage and establish a ‘nationalist, socialist, pan-Africanist and democratic Republic of Zimbabwe’.
Its manifesto said: “ZANU PF believes that power must vest in the people both in respect of the party and in respect of the government of the country’.
This is why ZANU PF wants democracy in Zimbabwe, requiring that there should be democratic elections based on adult suffrage to enable the people to choose their own government.”
In the 2005 elections, the message was the same.
The Party’s manifesto said: “ZANU PF is a mass party that defends, projects, promotes, protects and guarantees the rights of the ordinary people, especially the peasant majority.
It is the only Party that understands the national question and commands most effective ways of resolving it.
For 15 years, it waged a relentless armed struggle against settler colonialism, creating present day conditions for freedom and independence.
Beyond the armed struggle, it healed and transformed the once racially truncated society into a non-racial sovereign, and well-integrated democracy we have in Zimbabwe today.
ZANU PF is indeed the maker of a nation, the maker of a sovereign people.
ZANU PF is the Party of heroism and supreme sacrifices; ZANU PF is the Party of national independence and sovereignty; ZANU PF is the Party of national unity.”
News that Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators and Former Political Detainees Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube had initiated processes for dialogue with war veterans immediately evoked memories of the ZANU PF of the 1980s.
This is the ZANU PF that has defined Zimbabwean politics and one that has superintended over the country’s development.
In a statement after meeting war veterans in the capital last week, the reshaping of ZANU PF took a step farther. And this is the ZANU PF that will romp to victory against the clueless opposition.
Rtd Col Dube said: “The war veterans reaffirmed their status as revolutionaries, asserting their unwavering loyalty to Zimbabwe, the revolutionary Party ZANU PF and its original and authentic leadership.”
On Saturday last week, President Mugabe then put the icing on the cake when he met war collaborators, ex-detainees, ex-restrictees, widows of fallen heroes, non-combatant cadres and war victims affiliated to ZANU PF.
President Mugabe said he would continue to reach out to war veterans and other non-military cadres who contributed to the liberation struggle.
“We are men of the people,” said President Mugabe.
“I am a man of the people, mainterests enyu ndiwaya.
“Ava vakomana ava, you see nokuti ndovandaive navo kuhondo ndinongoramba ndakati navo.
“Vamwe vachiti havaritaye here?
“Tinoziva kwatiri kuendaka vakomana. Tinosungirwa kuona kuti musangano wedu wakamira kuti twii nokuti shure uku hakuna mawar veterans akawanda akubva nekudefence, kana ari kubva nekupolice, kana ari kubva nekucivil service. Ava mashoma.”
President Mugabe said Government was committed to improving the welfare of war veterans and others who contributed to the Second Chimurenga, with authorities working on a cocktail of measures to cater for their needs.
“Asi zvichemo zvenyu zvikuru tichati tobatsirana,” he said.
“Tichada kuti tione nevatungamiriri kuti hapana here zvatingaite.
“Tinokwanisa, definitely, to get a mine, even two mines dzatinoita kuita set aside.
“Gold is quicker and also highly valued. Tinokwanisa definitely to get a mine or even two mines.”
President Mugabe said he would meet widows of fallen heroes this week to discuss their welfare and other issues.
“Mawidows, vazhinji havasati vakurisa, but all the same vari entitled kuti vachengeterwe mari and ivo pachavo vapihwewo maallowances,” he said.
“Shirikadzi dzandareva idzi tichasangana nadzo ipo pasvondo riri kuuya iri, but toronga nekuona kuti chii chavakapihwa, chii chavasina kupihwa; ndevapi vane maprofessions, vakanyanyofunda maningi; ndezvipi zvavangakwanisa kuita.”
In the meantime, the country’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation continues to deliver key results in earnest.
When ZANU PF wins the 2018 elections, the opposition, which is currently grappling with forming a coalition that will soon be extinct, will without doubt cry foul as usual.
Let those with ears listen.