IF we are to go by what was happening in the political field in the past few months, then we should expect a sleek, clean and well oiled machine to emerge at the conclusion of the ongoing 6th ZANU PF National People’s Congress in Harare.
A disturbing trend had emerged from the last ZANU PF Youth Congress and provincial elections for party chairmen and even those of district structures.
Party principles seemed to have been thrown out the window and replaced by ‘filthy’ money used to buy votes.
Vote-buying came to a head at the Youth Congress, to the extent that ZANU PF’s President and First Secretary, President Robert Mugabe expressed his disgust at the rot within the revolutionary party.
He promised this would be righted at the December Congress now in progress.
This organised vote-buying was not taken lightly even by rank-and-file members of the revolutionary party, who at some point must have feared their observations were being ignored.
Enter Dr Amai Grace Mugabe.
In the First Lady’s Meet the People Tour, she brought home what a good number of ZANU PF faithfuls had already suspected.
What was the motive of this apparently well organised cabal, that was using vast sums of money to ensure total control of all ZANU PF structures countrywide up to?
Vice-President Dr Joice Mujuru was leading a group of power-hungry sharks within the party to unconstitutionally unseat President Mugabe, revealed the First Lady.
And control of all party structures by hook or crook was one of their key strategies.
This was to be later confirmed by the President himself.
Grassroots reaction to this revelation was an immediate countrywide cleansing of the ZANU PF structures.
This saw some high ranking party officials including Vice-President Dr Joice Mujuru failing to be nominated to the Central Committee.
Votes of no confidence were passed against district and provincial officials deemed to be promoting division within the party.
Vote-buying had now come back to haunt those who had thought were beneficiaries.
We believe this cleansing is not merely to change faces, but to put into leadership positions people who will see to it that principles and objectives of ZANU PF are put into practice.
The revolutionary party has survived trying times in the past because it is strong, principled and focused.
Even today the magnitude of the 6th National People’s Congress venue, constructed over just a few weeks, is by itself a silent reminder of the might of ZANU PF.
As pointed out elsewhere in this edition, this should be enough to show not only internal opposition, but Western-backed civic groups as well that their regime change agenda is bound to be futile.
Thus, the new-look Central Committee to emerge from this Congress should reflect the party’s strength and resolve by steering through the party’s goals within the next five years.
They should never lose sight of the theme of the 6th National People’s Congress: ‘Accelerated Implementation of Zim-ASSET’.
After all, this is in line with the ZANU PF manifesto that saw the party cruise to a landslide victory on July 31 2013.
The electorate is waiting for results.
We also expect the cleansing started at the ZANU PF Congress to spread to all Government departments, above all, parastatals.
The President heard for himself the deafening roar of approval when in his keynote opening address he promised that those proved to be engaged in corrupt activities, be they in Government ministries or parastatals, will not only be sacked, but will also be prosecuted.
We wish the new-look Central Committee a successful five-year term.