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He is taking over from Cde Noah Mangondo who is now in the Harare province fundraising committee.

Cde Gumbo said the committee was expected to raise resources for the Conference and harmonised elections set for next year.

“Cde Mutasa will be chairman of the committee while Cde (Goodson) Nguni will be the coordinator of the fundraising committee,” he said.

“The committee has been mandated to raise and mobilise resources for various activities of the party such as the Annual National People’s Conference, the National Congress, harmonised elections and all sorts of activities of the party.

“This year’s fundraising activity will focus mainly on the Annual National People’s Conference to be held in Gweru.”

The launch of the fundraising campaign, Cde Gumbo said, would be held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare next week.

He said Vice President and Second Secretary of Zanu-PF Cde Joice Mujuru was expected to be the guest of honour at the dinner.

Cde Gumbo said the fundraising committee would hold a business expo in Gweru during the conference.

He said President Mugabe was expected to tour the stands at the expo.

“The committee will sell party regalia to bring colour and glitter to the conference,” said Cde Gumbo. I just want to warn the public that we will not tolerate people who will come to sell their wares at the conference without getting the authority from the party’s department of Information and Publicity.”

He said stern measures would be taken against people who defy the rule.

Cde Charles Tavengwa who is the party’s deputy secretary for finance said the fundraising committee was expected to raise  $2 million for the conference.

Provinces, he said, were expected to contribute about $150 000 each.

“However from previous experience, some provinces managed to raise about $50 000 each. Now we expect the provinces to raise about $50 000 each so that they can raise the  $500 000 that is required from them. The conference requires about $2 500 000 so we expect $2 million to come from the fundraising committee,” said Cde Tavengwa.

Cde Gumbo and Cde Tavengwa dismissed as malicious reports that Zanu-PF was using money from diamond proceeds to bankroll its activities.

“How we raise money for our activities is none of their business. But the MDC has not told us how much they got from the Westminster Foundation. We dismiss that assertion with the contempt it deserves,” said Cde Gumbo.

Added Cde Tavengwa: “We table our externally audited accounts every year. We are very open about what we owe banks.”