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Perspective Stephen Mpofu
With sustainable social and economic transformation a major agenda for Zimbabwe right now, purposeful unity in the ruling party, Zanu-PF, becomes a sine qua non for taking the country to higher levels of development.Yet it cannot be said with equanimity that that unity remains the marrow, a driving force or the value giving Zanu-PF a supremacy that it should not only boast but must be seen to do so by continuing to shove political rivals in the shade as it has done with electoral triumphs that stretch back to the independence elections that saw colonial rule in Rhodesia eclipsed.

Things could, indeed, be rosier without elements of indiscipline that are slowly but surely gnawing the party’s strength and supremacy.

Were that situation not giving party gurus sleepless nights there would have been no need for the governing party’s commissariat boss reading the Riot Act, as he did just recently.

Talking about pending by-elections in constituencies where party leaders were booted out for behaviour incompatible with Zanu-PF values, national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere was quoted in the press earlier this week as saying the revolutionary party would not be blackmailed by people who think that if certain legislators were fired from the party, then the party would lose those seats.

Cde Kasukuwere spoke following reports that people in Hurungwe West, whose representative in the National Assembly, Temba Mliswa, was fired from the party last week, were fully behind him and would vote for him if he contested the by-election as an independent candidate.

Politics being a “dirty game” that it is, one cannot rule out the possibility of followers of a maverick party leader shoed away from Zanu-PF elsewhere for conduct incompatible with standing party rules taking a cue from Hurungwe by declaring an undying support for their ousted member of parliament — and Headlands is another case in point.

The Hurungwe scenario gives off two impressions, both of them disquieting as they are.

The first of these is that by deciding to oppose Zanu-PF as an independent contestant in the by-election, instead of demonstrating contrition for conduct that cost him his party membership, Mliswa certainly causes one to suspect that the man may have always been a political wolf in sheep’s skin, otherwise why try to poke his erstwhile party in the eye by opposing its chosen by-election candidate?

Those party supporters prepared to demonstrate their love for Mliswa against Zanu-PF’s choice of a by-election candidate to replace the ousted provincial chairman cannot fail to make innocent observers believe that they and Mliswa — or others elsewhere behaving likewise — are members of an opposition party that has masqueraded within the ruling party while life there still tasted sweet for them and their leader.

The situation in Zimbabwe today with small opposition parties pursuing the politics of perpetuating self- economic and leadership interests should be seen by all concerned as a serious distraction to national unity against imperialists that cause division and weakness in countries that they target for hegemonic occupation.

The challenges that Zimbabweans from across diverse political persuasions have experienced or overcome since independence in 1980, or still grapple with, should convince and persuade Zimbabweans to stand solidly together as an impregnable buffer against imperialist machinations in order that Zimbabwe remains for Zimbabweans to shape our own destiny the best way we see how.

That being the case, with Zanu-PF ensconced in the saddle, it is only natural that the commissariat department of the ruling party runs a fine comb through all structures of the revolutionary party to remove any dandruff so that Zanu-PF remains clean, fresh and strong to neutralize any external or internal machinations intended to render it dysfunctional.

It is better for the ruling party to doddle along with fewer, loyal and dedicated supporters than to be swamped by Judas Iscariots masquerading as loyalists who can abandon it to the dogs when it becomes convenient for them to do so.

So, in reality, Cde Kasukuwere’s department needs everyone’s support in Zanu-PF in its task of removing the weeds from the genuine crop of revolutionary party supporters.

What is of imperative importance right now is for Zimbabweans across the political divide to rally their support behind our President for the honour bestowed on him as chairman of the African Union. His political experience and maturity as well as his grasp of international political dynamics will no doubt enrich the continental body with fresh new perspectives of developing Africa and forging unity to withstand the enemy without, Africa’s congenital critics and detractors in the mold of former colonial powers and their ilk.

Expressions of verbal support will all be very well, but what is likely to give the President greater joy are acts of solidarity among Zimbabweans in developing as well as protecting the motherland against those who want to make the world believe that after the collapse of white racist rule in Rhodesia we, Zimbabweans, are incapable of feeding and clothing ourselves.

Indeed, that our President is concomitantly chairman of the Southern African Development Community should make all genuine Zimbabweans walk with their heads thrust in the air.

Moreover, even those Zimbabweans who, like their imperialist masters pathologically hate President Mugabe, actually also share as a nation in the honour bestowed on Cde Mugabe as he is not only President of his party supporters but also that of every Zimbabwean citizen as well as bona fide non-citizens resident in the country.