WHAT happened in Mutare during President Robert Mugabe’s second Presidential Youth Interface Rally last Friday is difficult to put into context through words.
This writer will attempt to give an orderly account of events that took place in Mutare with a view to reach the conclusion why the ZANU PF juggernaut is to live with us for many years to come and why the Ruling Party is master of the mass mobilisation game.
In Mutare on Friday last week, the overwhelming number of people was once again a devastating demystification of the abused but difficult to comprehend claim that ZANU PF ‘force marches’ people to attend its rallies.
It has become a tradition for those opposed to the Party to throw barbs that attempt to spread the notion that ZANU PF uses coercion to attract huge numbers at its rallies.
Yet the huge numbers in Mutare failed to explain how people under duress could destroy a barricade and try to force their way into an already filled Sakubva Stadium, venue of that grandiose event.
The people came on buses and lorries, while others came on foot but each time one blinked, the crowds kept swelling in numbers.
That cycle seemed not to stop.
It went on and on until ZANU PF’s trademark green, yellow, black and red became an unending wave of jubilation, attracting the eye as far as it could see.
Sakubva Stadium then responded in kind, opening up its arms to the ensuing carnival of the mighty ZANU PF, the people’s Party.
There was something difficult to put into context by way of words in Mutare.
ZANU PF has this irresistible, captivating touch, a natural one that makes its connection with the masses seamless.
It is this eternal connection, this eternal bond with the masses that was on exhibition in Mutare on Friday.
In Mutare, there were more than 60 000 people by the time we arrived at around 9am.
By 12pm the gates were already closed but still the people wanted to get in.
They wanted to be part of their Party’s show of mobilisation capacity.
They wanted to be part of the crowd that was endorsing the revolutionary Party.
They wanted to catch a glimpse of their leadership as they trooped into the packed stadium one by one to a rousing welcome.
Yet the infrastructure provided by Sakubva Stadium could not simply accommodate them.
It was too small for the crowd; too small for ZANU PF.
The most enduring image was of a middle-aged man who wept like a child when he was told by the security details manning the entry points that he could not get inside the stadium since it was already filled to capacity..
The man was from Dotito.
According to his narrative, he woke up at 3am, uninvited, but wanted to see his leader, the iconic President Robert Mugabe.
He arrived at the venue at around 11am and joined one of the long winding queues.
His wait in the long queue was in vain as he could not enter.
All he wanted was to be allowed to get inside Sakubva Stadium, get a glimpse of the leadership and get outside to create space for others to do the same.
Security could not allow that.
They broke his heart and he broke down, overcome by emotion and failure to see his icons.
Now as the man narrated his ordeal which was intermittently interrupted by occasional sobs, the question that came to this writer’s mind was, how does a much loved party like ZANU PF get accused of rigging?
There are many compelling reasons ZANU PF is the people’s party and why Mutare was just a precursor to what is to follow as the 2018 harmonised elections beckon.
Consider the following:
Enduring ideological foundation
The opposition MDC-T and frustrated ZANU PF ex-members usually claim that: ‘Hatidye ideology’ (We don’t eat ideology).
What the proponents of this horrendous statement fail to acknowledge is that it is from this ideological grounding that ZANU PF has created all things good like Land Reform and Resettlement and the on-going Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment programmes.
Super campaign strategy
In 2013, ZANU PF shook the opposition to the core when it made its presence visible through distribution of regalia.
That was a simple but effective strategy.
An October 2013 report by the Solidarity Peace Trust titled The End of a Road: The 2013 Elections in Zimbabwe, acknowledges that ZANU PF was miles ahead of its stuttering opponents in the run-up to the July 31 2013 drubbing of the MDC-T.
It says:
“ZANU gave just anyone, if you happened to be near when they were passing by they would give you, either a cap, or a doek [scarf], to tie around your head, they were not discriminating. Other parties did not have — you recognise Highlanders [soccer] fans by their regalia, but some supporters of these other parties did not have their party regalia – these other parties ended up like school children who just wear their school uniforms because they are too poor to have the right clothes so that you know who they are.” (Old man, Umzingwane)
Economic empowerment programmes
If there was ever any doubt that ZANU PF’s area of speciality is delivering to the masses, one needs to look no further than the Command Agriculture Programme, the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme, the tobacco farmers currently at auction floors and the soon to be constructed Beitbridge-Chirundu Highway.
Added to that is the recently completed Tokwe Mukosi Dam where more than 60 000 people will benefit.
With programmes like these, who needs the opposition.
As we drove from Mutare to prepare for another round of the youth rallies, it was clear that yet another victory is in the offing for ZANU PF.