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President Mugabe and the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe (seated) share a lighter moment with Malawi Congress Party publicity secretary Dr Jessy Kabwila at the official opening of the 6th zanu-pf Women’s League Conference in Harare yesterday. — (See Pages 2 and 8 for more stories, pictures and the President’s speech). —(Picture by William Mafunga)

Farirai Machivenyika Harare Bureau
President Mugabe yesterday warned women in Zanu-PF to shun those who use money to buy their votes ahead of the party’s elective national people’s congress in December.
Speaking while officially opening the 6th women’s league congress in Harare that was attended by nearly 4,000 women from the country’s 10 provinces, foreign delegates and invited guests, he said people must be independent enough to make their own choices.

President Mugabe said there were some ambitious members already campaigning for central committee posts using money to canvass support ahead of the December congress.

“Some are already campaigning vigorously and are using money and so they would want to see the youth league and the women’s league producing persons whom they think support them and will at congress combine in electing them,” he said.

“That is what is happening, so watch out. If you choose to be used like that so that when congress comes you elect those people, that would be your problem.  You would have allowed yourself to be bought, to be used.”

President Mugabe said it was important that people be left to make their choices without undue influence from anyone.

“People must be allowed to elect their leaders freely,” he said.

“Now we are implementing Zim-Asset, we are looking for money to implement it, so we want unity because elections are coming. If you work hard for the party and country people will take note. Not giving money to people, saying these are mine, those are not.  Some are boasting thinking they now have the people, ‘we are going forward and they will see us’.  Who will see you?”

President Mugabe apologised for the manner in which the party’s youth league congress held last week was disrupted by lack of organisation and by the use of money by some politburo and central committee members to influence the voting pattern.

He said such acts by the senior party members were criminal and the money used to buy votes could have been better spent on adequately preparing for the congress that was poorly organised.

“I want to once again, apologise for our blunders, there were many blunders in preparing for the youth league conference and very many blunders some of them even criminal blunders in interfering with the right of the members of the youth league to run their affairs, to make their own choice of who they preferred when the election of their own candidates for certain positions was necessary and it was only two positions,” President Mugabe said.

“The worst blunder was to interfere with the voting.  It was embarrassing for politburo members seeking to have their preferred candidates elected. They failed to raise money to organise the congress but had enough to buy votes.”

The youth league elections were for the positions of deputy secretary for youth affairs and secretary for administration which were eventually won by Cde Kudzai Chipanga from Manicaland and Cde Varaidzo Mupunga from Harare respectively.

President Mugabe said it was important for the different wings of the party to work in unity to ensure success of the party’s programmes, citing the resounding victory in last year’s harmonised elections as an example of what can be achieved when the members work in harmony.

“We cannot wage a fight against each other,” he said. “That destroys our unity. We are facing also the endemic enemies of hunger, disease and poverty and in some cases the ignorance also that we must rectify with more and more education and these are the evils that must be addressed by Zim-Asset and those are the enemies we must fight because they affect us all, affect our people.

“We need to uplift the standards of our people, the standards, when spread out mean their economic status, which is getting them to be wealthier than they are, getting them to be healthier than they are, getting them to be more enlightened, more highly educated than they are and getting them to be free in the environment and for them to be more capacitated generally than they are, that is the fight we must fight.

“Not to be this or that in the party or this or that in government. When we are carrying out this fight against these evils, the people will certainly reward us at the end of it all. At the end of the day, good leadership is disciplined leadership.”