THE three-item agenda prescribed for the ZANU PF Extraordinary Congress might, on paper, appear not to be enough to convey the significance of this historic occasion.
But the confirmation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the Party’s President and First Secretary is more than just a mere ceremony.
For this endorsement means Congress – the supreme organ of the party – is fully behind the President’s philosophy as he steers the nation through a new path.
At his inauguration, he promised to ‘hit the ground running’ as he promised to put the country back on its feet from a ‘pariah’ state status.
His assertion that whatever tasks that lay ahead could not be ‘accomplished through speeches’ was a nostalgic reminder of the Party’s spirit at its formation in 1963.
The subsequent 1964 Gwelo (Gweru) Congress endorsed the Party’s shift from ‘talks about talks’ to action through armed struggle.
Gone were the days of bread riots.
This is the same strategy which was adopted by ZAPU, a political partner, with whom a Unity Accord was sealed in December 1987.
A reincarnation of this revolutionary spirit should be witnessed when Congress endorses President Mnangagwa as the Party’s President and First Secretary.
Like the 1964 Gweru Congress, this entails boldness in facing possible hurdles head-on, no matter how challenging, in order to rebuild the country.
And there couldn’t have been a more appropriate leader than President Mnangagwa, who hit the ground running by going to China for military training immediately after the formation of ZANU in 1963.
Demonstration of collective responsibility and determination by Congress’s decision making bodies like the Politburo and the Central Committee, is bound to be felt by all regardless of political affiliation.
This should be just like the countrywide fever that saw both young and old determined to fight colonialism using the gun after the 1964 Gweru Congress, despite the weaponry superiority of the enemy.
Cadres of all ages, sex and from every corner of the country joined the struggle of their own volition.
Congress, the people and the party became one and the same in their quest to fulfill a national cause.
To borrow Plato’s analysis of the close relationship between the Greek city states and its people, in our case: the party became ‘the individual writ large’.
After all, the party ideas of President Mnangagwa, who has just been endorsed by Congress, are no different from what the people want.
Since the ideas of the party President endorsed today by Congress are national, we should expect a repeat of 1964.
We should therefore expect to see massive non-partisan enthusiasm in the desire to rebuild our economy from all sectors of our society.
If posterity can be able to identify similarities between the 1964 Gweru Congress and the 2017 Harare Extraordinary Congress, then today’s surviving participants can beat their chests.
But of course, it must be expected that some destabilising forces will always emerge from somewhere.
For instance, members of the MDC unholy alliance in the form of Nelson Chamisa, Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti were in the US on a counter-revolutionary mission.
Even if we go back in history, we have an example of detente, an imperialist exercise hatched to destroy the armed struggle endorsed at the 1964 Gweru Congress.
Cadres became disgruntled and the very existence of ZANU became threatened as people like Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Ndabaningi claimed leadership.
The intervention of the army, which paved the way for Cde Robert Mugabe to assume leadership, saved the day.
‘Operation Restore Legacy’ is still fresh on our minds when criminals of the G40 surrounded President Mugabe with the express purpose of influencing him to purge the Party of all genuine revolutionaries.
There will always be those who want to destroy the Party either from outside or from within.
Therefore, euphoria after this historic Congress should not tempt the Party stalwarts to lower their guard.