Zanu-PF Politburo meeting moved to Thursday Cde Gumbo
Cde Gumbo

Cde Gumbo

Harare Bureau
THE Zanu-PF Politburo meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow has been moved to Thursday. Party spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo confirmed the change yesterday.  “The Politburo meeting will now be held on Thursday to make way for the Cabinet meeting that will be held on Wednesday,” Cde Gumbo said. He could not divulge the agenda of the meeting, but the party’s national elections directorate is expected to present final guidelines for elections at the National People’s Congress in December.

It is also expected that the matter of the high ranking official mentioned by First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe in her “Meet the People” rallies as fanning factionalism and widely believed to be Vice-President Joice Mujuru will dominate proceedings.

Apart from accusations of fanning factionalism, the First Lady also accused the official of corruption and advised the official to apologise to President Mugabe or risk being sacked.
Cde Gumbo has since told our sister publication The Sunday Mail at the weekend that the serious allegations against the said official could not be ignored.

As preparations for the party’s elective Congress continue, Cde Gumbo said the Zanu-PF national elections directorate has finalised election guidelines to be used at the five-yearly convention, subject to Politburo endorsement on Thursday.

Members of the directorate chaired by Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo met in Harare yesterday to conclude the guidelines to be presented to the Politburo meeting.

Other party officials who attended the meeting included national commissar Cde Webster Shamu, Cde Gumbo and Politburo member Cde Charles Tawengwa.
“The meeting was about fine-tuning areas that we will be presenting to the Politburo on Thursday,” said Cde Gumbo. “The issues are to do with the Congress preparations. We are ready to present to the Politburo. There are no contentious issues at all.”

Following the shambolic Youth Conference in August that was marred by allegations of vote-buying and manipulation as well as reports of kidnappings and intimidation ahead of the 6th Women’s League Conference the same month, party cadres intimated that the party was likely to use secret ballot at the Congress.

It has become a trend the world over that any form of elections be conducted through a secret ballot to eliminate cases of intimidation.
But Cde Gumbo said the issue would only be discussed at the Politburo meeting in the event that it is raised.

He said the revolutionary party would be guided by its constitution that office bearers must be elected by provincial structures.
Zanu-PF Secretary for Legal Affairs Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa recently said the party’s constitution provided for a one-man-one-vote election system at Congress.

He said that is how the party has been conducting its elections since 1963.
Cde Mnangagwa, who is also the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the party constitution was also up for amendment at the Congress to abolish District Co-ordinating Committees.

Some quarters have also called on the revolutionary party to amend its constitution that allows 10 senior officials to automatically become Politburo members without Presidential appointment.

They argue that this was the only way to nip factionalism in the bud as the current set-up allowed non-appointed leaders to create own centres of power, which resulted in factionalism that manifested itself in vote-buying, violence, intimidation and general disloyalty to the President and First Secretary.

Analysts and party officials said the party constitution was at loggerheads with the 1987 Unity Accord as to how people could occupy the two VP posts.
Article 4 of the Unity Accord states: “That Zanu-PF shall have two Second Secretaries and Vice Presidents who shall be appointed by the First Secretary and President of the party.”
Article 7 of the Zanu-PF Constitution on the other hand says: “There shall be a Central Committee which shall be the principal organ of Congress and shall consist of . . . (a) President and First Secretary, (b) Two Vice Presidents and Second Secretaries, one of whom shall be a woman, and (c) The National Chairman of the Party.

“All of whom shall be elected by Congress directly upon nomination by at least six provincial co-ordinating committees of the party, meeting separately in special session called for that purpose”.

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