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President Mnangagwa

Nduduzo Tshuma in Harare
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said today’s Zanu-PF Extra-ordinary Congress will extend the tenure of Central Committee members to 2022 when the party holds an ordinary congress.

Officially opening the 107th ordinary session of the Central Committee at the Zanu-PF Headquarters, President Mnangagwa said the move was meant to allay anxieties and stop the jostling which was beginning to negatively impact on the party.

President Mnangagwa who is expected to today announce the new leadership of the Women’s League said that wing and the Youth League needed special attention as they suffered the worst from the destructive politics of the deposed G40 cabal.

The President said before the extension, the tenure of the Central Committee members would have ordinarily expired in 2019.

The party was initially set to hold its congress in 2019, five years after the one held in 2014 before a decision to hold a special congress this year ahead of national elections next year.

“Lest there is confusion, may I point out that the Extra-Ordinary Congress we are set to have tomorrow (today) is not an elective one in respect of the Central Committee and all other organs of the party.

“The Congress will therefore extend the tenure of these current Central Committee members, which would have ordinarily expired in 2019, by another five years. This means that luckily, you here now stand to serve the party for five more uninterrupted years until the next Congress which falls due in 2022,” said President Mnangagwa.

“I hope this clarification allays anxieties and stops the jostling that had begun to negatively affect the party. Meanwhile, provinces will be permitted to fill vacancies where they exist.”

President Mnangagwa said the Youth and Women’s leagues needed urgent attention.

“I am particularly concerned about the situation in both the Women and Youth leagues which were the greatest victims of the counter revolutionaries who had captured the party. These two vital organs of our party must receive our urgent but compassionate attention so we put them back on the rails,” said President Mnangagwa.

“In respect of the Youth League, conscious effort must be made to ensure vigorous interventions from the Commissariat so that the youths reconnect with the ethos of the struggle and value system of the party as it has evolved over the years.”

President Mnangagwa said the Central Committee meeting of yesterday was unique and historic in that he was addressing it as President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF as a result of the November 19 resolution by the Central Committee which elevated him to the helm of the party.

He said the resolution of November 19 not only ended his brief stint in exile following his summary and illegal dismissal from party and Government but also thrust him into the leadership of the party. He said he was humbled by the organ’s show of confidence in him.

President Mnangagwa also paid tribute to the party for keeping him in their thoughts and prayers when he fell ill in August.

He said yesterday’s meeting was going to receive a report from the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Retired Air Marshal Perrance Shiri on the state of the country’s agriculture and interventions in store.

“The lessons and successes from Command Agriculture and the Presidential Input Scheme must embolden us to know that we can overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges as a nation if we are disciplined, united, purposeful and hard working,” he said.