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THE 17th Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conference opens today with a Politburo meeting, setting the tone for proceedings which will begin in earnest on Thursday in Esigodini, Matabeleland South Province. Themed “Zimbabwe Is Open for Business: Peace, Unity Towards An Upper Middle Income Economy by 2030”, the annual gathering of members of the ruling party comes against the backdrop of a resounding landslide victory in the July 30 harmonised elections where Zanu-PF clinched a two thirds majority in Parliament while its presidential candidate Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa romped to victory beating his closest challenger, Mr Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change.

The polls gave birth to the Second Republic and a new dispensation following the resignation of former President Mr Robert Mugabe in November last year. The conference also comes after an Extra-Ordinary Congress last year ratified Cde Mnangagwa as party President and First Secretary.

The economy is likely to dominate proceedings at the indaba and as the party that informs Government, expectations are high that the party will tackle head on the problems bedevilling the country such as fuel shortages, price hikes and shortages of foreign currency.

In a clear departure from the previous regime where political issues, particularly factional fighting, took centre stage, this year’s conference will discuss the economy and give direction to Government on implementing high impact economic programmes to fast track recovery, growth and development.

We expect deliberations to focus on ways of resolving the currency distortions on the market, stimulating production in industry, the forthcoming agricultural season with emphasis on Command Agriculture, availability of inputs and implements.

Other key sectors of the economy should also come up for discussion — these include mining which is one of the country’s biggest foreign currency earners and tourism which contributes significantly to the fiscus. Conference should also be seized with finding ways of further enhancing the ease of doing business to attract Foreign Direct Investment, removing bottlenecks such as cumbersome regulations for prospective investors and expediting the operationalisation of Special Economic Zones. Austerity is what should drive Zimbabwe going forward and the ruling party should support efforts by Treasury to rein in Government expenditure as enunciated in Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube in his 2019 National Budget Statement.

Current efforts to curb corruption by targeting both the tigers (bigwigs) and flies (low level officials) should be unequivocally endorsed by conference. In line with President Mnangagwa’s call for Zimbabweans to focus on the economy and less on politics, we envisage a productive conference that will come up with tangible resolutions that will spur economic growth.

Speaking to our sister paper, The Sunday Mail at the weekend, Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu said deliberations this year would ignore politicking and would focus on pertinent issues. “We will be dealing mainly with issues to do with the economy, issues to do with the party, issues that were raised in our manifesto, resolutions from the provinces and the general economic situation,” said Dr Mpofu.

“So the agenda has been drafted in such a way that it will be business throughout the days that have been set for the Conference”.

The Conference, he said, would be short and focused, unlike previous gatherings.

“We are on course; all departments, all committees have finalised their preparations and we want to assure the delegates and the country that it’s all systems go. This will be one of the most eventful conferences being held under the New Dispensation.

“This is a very different Annual People’s Conference from all the others we held previously. This is a much focused Conference which has a lot of interest from the membership and the general populace in our country.

“It will be a very short Conference, instead of the usual five to seven days we used to take, this will be a three-day Conference because of the focused nature of the agenda,” Dr Mpofu said.

We are glad that Zanu-PF has taken heed of President Mnangagwa’s call for less politicking and a focus on the economy. The era of sloganeering is over and new and better ways of doing things beckon. The President is aggressively pursuing quick economic recovery through implementation of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (2018–2020), premised on fiscal consolidation, economic stabilisation, and stimulation of growth and creation of employment.

His party should support him by supervising implementation of the TSP and holding Government to account. Indeed the party is supreme and should play its oversight role impeccably. The starting point is the Conference this week where we expect delegates to interrogate issues of national importance with clarity of mind and apply themselves with diligence. Concrete and actionable resolutions should be adopted for onward transmission to Government.

We therefore look forward to fruitful deliberations in Esigodini as the entire country is banking on the ruling party to find solutions to the economic problems affecting Zimbabwe.