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In politics as in sport and other contests, there are rules that must be obeyed.  Rules are important as they instill order, discipline and fairness.  Those who disregard them invite their own punishment.
Politics is inherently competitive, but that competition is only acceptable if it occurs according to defined standards.
With cadres seeking to position themselves and undoing their rivals ahead of Zanu-PF’s elective congress in four months’ time, we have witnessed intense jockeying. It worries us that the contestation has yielded gross indiscipline in some quarters.

The chaotic manner in which the youth and women’s league congresses were staged in Harare last month exposed much. A few named senior party leaders coerced youths to vote for their loyalists, overthrowing the basic tenets of democracy that Zanu-PF fought for and has practised since 1980.  Some seniors also bribed youths to vote in a prescribed way.

In addition, the youth congress was marred by clear dereliction of duty when people were deliberately starved or denied transport and accommodation.
The same corruption was evident in the women’s league congress but was contained timeously.

We don’t know if the results of the national executive elections for the youth league can pass the most basic test of freeness, fairness and the need to reflect the will of the electorate.

Last week, there was open violence in Harare when Cde Edison Takataka, the provincial deputy chairman was beaten up in the presence of politburo member, Cde Tendai Savanhu. His crime, if indeed it was, was that he mobilised people, a few weeks earlier, to go to Mazowe to attend the meeting that made the historic declaration for First Lady, Amai Grace Mugabe to be appointed secretary for the women’s league.

Harare, yet again, served up an act of extreme insolence last week when Harare South MP, Cde Shadreck Mashayamombe called Cde Patrick Zhuwawo, a close relative of President Mugabe, asking him to secure a central committee seat for the First Lady in Mashonaland West, not in the capital. This is despite the fact that she has always voted in Harare where she is resident and registered as a Zanu-PF member.

It is clear that Cde Mashayamombe was not acting alone, but for bigger forces in the province and country that are opposed to the First Lady’s promising political career. What is unclear is whether the opposition is not aimed at the President himself.

Harare is a microcosm of a broader, national plot by some cadres to promote themselves and undo their rivals with no regard for the party’s established code of ethics and respect.

Indeed, some are exceeding themselves. The time to give them the punishment they invite to themselves is now.
We are pleased that the more sensible of our leadership, President Mugabe in particular, knows about the gross indiscipline and unbridled ambition that is threatening the integrity of Zanu-PF.

Speaking on Sunday at Harare International Airport on arrival from a successful weeklong state visit to China, the President reminded the ambitious that he was in charge.

“Recently, we were saying the youths were ill-treated. We are saying, yes, we cannot discuss the matter here with Cde Mutasa but we have a meeting this week to discuss how things are going on. How did things go at the two conferences for youths and women? Is the path we are moving the same or we have gone separate ways?”
He declared:

“I was not chosen by one person, I was chosen by the party. I am not a President concerned only with the main wing of the party leaving youths and women. I don’t want people who use the party for their own ends. You were elected by the people, but you now want to elevate yourselves without their support, we don’t want that. We say down with you. We shall discuss this matter. Now there is confusion and divisions, with some saying ‘Harare is ours, you are not from Harare, move out, aaah’. We don’t want Harare like that. We are all united in Harare. It does not belong to one person.

“I am saying so because I heard someone sent my nephew (Cde Zhuwawo) to go and tell Amai Mugabe to leave Harare. Where will she go? I said I wanted to hear why she is being removed? And where will she go? But I also want to hear where this person who calls himself emperor of Harare gets his powers.”

The politburo meeting due this week in Harare is an opportunity for the party leadership to put a stop to the indiscipline, reckless ambition and other negatives that have been happening lately.

A few self-appointed emperors are being fingered, not just in Harare, and they have errand-boys on the ground. All of them deserve their punishment. Rules must be obeyed and discipline restored.