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First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe

When Zanu-PF holds its elective congress in December, it will be two years away from seeking another mandate from the electorate to preside over the nation’s governance issues. The ruling party won resoundingly the August 2013 harmonised elections because of its election manifesto which had a clear programme of action meant to improve the people’s livelihoods.

The men and women voted into office on the party ticket made promises to improve the people’s lives guided by the party’s election manifesto. The electorate has started to evaluate the ruling party cadres’ performance given that a year has gone by since the winners assumed office.

Time is not on the office bearers’ side given the fact that this government took over from the infamous inclusive government that was characterised by political bickering which saw the implementation of a number of development projects stalled as government ministers from the differing political parties flexed their muscles at the expense of service delivery.

It is therefore not too late for members of the revolutionary party to focus more on service delivery to avoid rendering the party irrelevant come 2018. This is the bold message that the First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe has, since the start of her “Meet the People” tour, been trying to drive home. Those in office can only ignore Cde Mugabe’s message at their own peril.

The electorate expects those in office to fulfil the election promises whose thrust is to improve the people’s welfare. Cde Mugabe noted that the ruling party’s leadership is expending too much energy on factional fights thereby compromising service delivery.

The First Lady has been to Mashonaland West, Midlands, Harare, Masvingo, Manicaland, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North provinces and at all her meetings she has emphasised the need to improve service delivery.

Cde Mugabe said the people want food on the table and this is only possible if those voted into office implement projects outlined under the government’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset. She said it was unfortunate that some leaders in the party were losing focus and promoting factionalism as they positioned themselves ahead of the elective Congress in December. She said some of the leaders were enticing people with money in their desperate bid to win support.

The First Lady’s emphasis on service delivery resonates well with the people’s expectations. People, as already alluded to, expect their lives to improve for the better. It is a fact that the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West are partly to blame for the many economic challenges facing the country but instead of mourning, Zimbabweans should organise. The Westerners after failing to effect regime change through their puppet MDC party have turned to economic squeeze to force people to rise against their government.

It is an illusion to therefore think that one day Zimbabweans can wake up to find foreign companies falling over each other as they stampede to invest in the country. Foreign direct investment should therefore be viewed as a bonus as long as Westerners are determined to effect a regime change. Zimbabwe should therefore focus on using its available resources to grow its economy.

Zimbabwe is fortunate because it is endowed with both natural resources such as minerals as well as an educated labour force.

Vice-President Joice Mujuru noted that government is burdened by looking after a highly educated but unemployed group of people who are hunting for jobs. We want to once again implore those in leadership to take seriously the First Lady’s words of wisdom and start delivering before it’s too late.