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Tendai Mugabe Harare Bureau
THE Zanu-PF politburo meets in Harare today for an emergency session called by President Mugabe to discuss challenges afflicting the revolutionary party ahead of its elective Sixth National People’s Congress in December.
Today’s meeting comes at a time political analysts have called on Zanu-PF to thrash out all the problems facing the party to give it time to focus on the implementation of Zim-Asset and the operationalisation of the mega deals signed during President Mugabe’s state visit to China.

Although the agenda of the meeting was not made public by last night, President Mugabe hinted on his arrival from China early Sunday morning that the meeting would, among other things, look at reports of vote buying, intimidation and other irregularities that characterised the Women’s and Youth League conferences last month where several senior politburo and central committee members as well as six of the party’s 10 provincial chairpersons were implicated in vote manipulation and vote buying that marred, particularly, the Youth League conference.

All those implicated in vote buying, the analysts said, should face the music otherwise Zanu-PF would keep going around in circles.
Some analysts even suggested that the party should annul the results of the Youth League conference, which they argued was fraught with glaring irregularities.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo confirmed the meeting yesterday although he refused to disclose its agenda.

“Yes, we are having a politburo meeting tomorrow (today),” he said.
“The agenda is prepared by Secretary for Administration Cde Didymus Mutasa so I am not aware of it,” he said though a source close to developments said the minute had one agenda item, a post-mortem of developments in the party.

Dr Nhamo Mhiripiri, a Media and Society Studies lecturer at the Midlands State University, said Zanu-PF should urgently address the internecine problems.
He said the party should set up a commission of inquiry to look into the challenges encountered during the two conferences.

“They (Zanu-PF) should set a commission of inquiry to look into that and stamp out that rot. We should not blame MDC and not accuse Zanu-PF when they go below our expectations,” he said.

Dr Mhiripiri said although the agenda of the meeting was not known, President Mugabe hinted on issues such as divisions in Harare province and factionalism, which should be dealt with decisively.

“That rot should be stamped out early,” he said.
Dr Mhiripiri said the meeting should also map a trajectory on how the party should pull together.

Political commentator Alexander Kanengoni, said today’s meeting should crucially deal with those implicated in vote buying and intimidating members of the two leagues.

“Politburo should deal with such people because that is a mockery of the revolution,” he said. “Why should one buy people? It means you want to buy the eventual outcome of the elections.

“This is not the Zanu-PF that the living and departed heroes fought for.”
University of Zimbabwe lecturer Dr Charity Manyeruke, said it was fundamental for the meeting to do a thorough audit of what transpired during the Women and Youth League conferences.

“The party should do a review of the election process of the Youths and Women’s League conferences with a view to bringing sanity in the party because sometimes there are justified allegations that need to be addressed,” she said.

Dr Manyeruke added that although it was not desirable to announce some punitive measures, it was important to be truthful on the happenings in the party.
She said the meeting should look at challenges affecting the party at all levels to avoid a delink with grassroots structures.

Analyst Margaret Dongo said Zanu-PF should be open to discuss succession issues.
She said reports of factionalism in Zanu-PF were inevitable in view of the coming congress.

“The issue of factions in Zanu-PF cannot be resolved before resolving the issue of succession. The factions are normal because they test the strength of democracy in the party,” she said.

“Zanu-PF should go back to the drawing board and see where they have gone wrong.”
Trevor Chikomo of Chitungwiza said Zanu-PF as a party that informs the government should put its house in order or risk going the way of the MDC-T.

“It is unfortunate that after a highly successful visit to China, the President returns to the intra-party problems we have been reading in the media. Who will implememt the mega deals if people are busy fighting for positions,’’ he said.

Following the Youth and Women’s League conferences, infighting escalated in the party with Harare’s deputy youth chair Cde Edison Takataka, being reportedly assaulted in the presence of politburo member Cde Tendai Savanhu.

This prompted another politburo member Cde Cleveria Chizema to call for the dissolution of the Cde Amos Midzi-led executive in Harare, which she accused of working with Cde Savanhu to divide the party.