SUCH is the pull factor of President Robert Mugabe that what started off as a private visit to Chief Gutu’s homestead to pay his respects to the late Chief Gutu, Anos Kasirayi Masanganise and his wife Pamhidzai Masanganise, ended up with the revered leader addressing a hugely attended rally at Chamisa Primary School in Gutu on Friday last week.
At Chamisa, the capacity crowd that thronged the venue of the rally could not just let their beloved leader depart without having a moment with him.
And President Mugabe, forever the people’s servant, duly responded by delivering a message that should see the ZANU PF ideology taking centre stage once again.
It was a message about re-establishing the ideological connection that makes ZANU PF the people’s Party.
It was a message about all organs of the party congregating at the ideological fountain.
It was a message of re-uniting brawling ‘factions’ within the Party and about youths taking a cue from the elders in the party on matters to do with ideology.
It was equally a message about the Party leadership playing a central role in ensuring that the Party’s ideology is adhered to religiously.
Consistency with the Party ideology was the message directed both to youths and war veterans who have had ugly public spats in recent times.
“Youth League irambe iri Youth League yakabatana; kwete Youth League yekuda kurwisana nevakuru,” said President Mugabe.
“Ungaita ruzivo rwekuti takabva kupi iwe wakazvarwa 20 years ago?
“Hazvibatsiri izvozvo.
“Regai kupazaniswa pfungwa nevamwe vanoda kutikanganisa vachiti sapotai nhingi, ivai group ranhingi.
“Hatina magroups anonzi iri nderanhingi.
“We have one big group which is ZANU PF.
“We do not know about factions.”
In Gutu, President Mugabe implored war veterans to bequeath their ethos of defending national sovereignty and independence to the youth.
“Ko nhaka yenyu inoinda mberi seiko nekuti hakuchava nemamwe mawar vets mangwana?,” he said.
“Mawar vets akaitika kare.
“Mawar vets ari kuramba achishomeka, achishomeka nekukura, achishomeka nerufu.
“Saka nhaka inotorwa nekusimudzirwa nevechidiki vari kuuya; varikuuya vari muParty not outside the Party.
“And we want the unity of the Party, not the divisions of it.
“Saka war vets should exercise their right, yes, their right to belong to the Party.
“They have no right to operate outside the Party, not at all.”
There has been a disturbing trend where some youths, completely ignorant of the Party’s ideology, have emerged from nowhere.
These are youngsters bent on making money using ZANU PF’s name.
From their ramblings on social media and in the so-called independent press, it is evident they do not have an iota of the Party ideology flowing in their veins.
These need to be educated and abstain from the Ndabaningi Sithole syndrome.
Sithole strayed from the Party’s ideology, started hobnobbing with the enemy and was duly sent packing.
If there was a constant and timely reminder which was poignant too, it was that the role and duty of war veterans to bequeath the ideology to the youth must never be understated.
That message should be taken to heart by all youths representing the ruling ZANU PF Party these days.
War veterans are the link between the ideology that must be pursued today and in the future.
It is socialism that anchors ZANU PF ideology.
It should forever be kept in mind that socialism is for a society in which the means of production are owned by the whole society, not a few greedy individuals.
This is what ZANU PF has consistently pursued since the days of the liberation struggle.
We refer back to the ZANU PF 1980 Election Manifesto which noted that:
“Zimbabwe’s economic resources cannot, but belong to the people of Zimbabwe as a whole.
“Accordingly, the ownership must vest in the people themselves, while their exploitation must serve the people’s common interests.”
In the same vein we refer back to the key points of The Year of the People’s Power declared in 1980.
Among the key objectives in the observance of ‘people’s power’ by ZANU PF included:
l ZANU PF’s beliefs in people’s power are that – ZANU PF as a people’s Party believes that the people as a whole must come before individuals.
l This means that ZANU PF considers the common interest of the people before it considers interests of individuals or of groups.
l ZANU PF is a people-oriented Party.
l 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.
l ZANU PF believes that in as much as the country belongs to the whole of our people or to our people as a whole, the resources of our country such as land, the rivers, the minerals, the forest, the mountains, the beasts, the birds and even insects are ours together endowed by nature or God and should thus belong to the people as a whole.
As we came back from Gutu, there was no doubt President Mugabe had once made a presentation similar to the one for which he received a standing ovation in Uganda the previous day.
But most important was the message contained in his speech.
Those abusing their positions and supposed links to ZANU PF must be careful for the end is nigh.
ZANU PF is driven by an ideology and those alien to this ideology have no place in the revolutionary Party.