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First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe

From Tendai Mugabe in Gweru—
Zanu-PF provincial chairpersons in major cities and in provinces with major towns have failed to reassert the ruling party’s dominance in urban areas and should be dismissed to pave way for others with new ideas, First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe has said. Since 1999, Zanu-PF’s support in the country’s two metropolitan provinces of Harare and Bulawayo dwindled dramatically, while the party continued to play second fiddle to MDC-T in other major cities such as Mutare, Masvingo and Gweru.

The party’s performance in urban areas is so catastrophic and in the last elections it laboured to win six seats in Harare and failed to win a single constituency in Bulawayo.

Addressing a bumper crowd at the Zanu-PF Conference Centre in Gweru yesterday, the First Lady took a swipe at some senior Zanu-PF members whom she said were working with MDC-T and other outside forces to destroy the revolutionary party.

Amai Mugabe said it was pointless to retain provincial chairpersons who appeared to have run out of all options to rejuvenate the party in urban areas.
She said even in the private sector, companies fired non-performing managers. Amai Mugabe said failure by Zanu-PF to have majority control in towns and cities was affecting development.

She said MDC-T and its councillors in towns were  only after regime change and not development of the country.
The First Lady said it was unfortunate that some Zanu-PF members were now working with MDC-T to derail the revolutionary party’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset, as long as President Mugabe was alive.

She said the collusion with MDC-T was manifesting in Zanu-PF where some senior officials were shying from denouncing the British-sponsored party in public.
She said she witnessed a situation in Mazowe where one senior party member chanted the party slogan with an open palm.

In some cases, Amai Mugabe said some members were saying: “Pamberi naPresident, Pamberi nePresidium (forward with the President, forward with the Presidium)” as if that was the party’s procedure.

She warned some members who were allegedly engaging in vote buying ahead of the Zanu-PF National People’s Congress in December that such nefarious activities should stop henceforth.

Amai Mugabe said such people should learn from MDC-T which dismally failed to dislodge President Mugabe regardless of its massive funding by the Westminster Foundation and Western governments.

She said such hypocrisy would not serve anything because President Mugabe was an intelligent and tested politician who could not be deceived by cheap trickery.
She said she was aware that some people were dishing out money to women in an attempt to dethrone President Mugabe under the pretext that he was now old.
She said it was unfortunate that some of the people who were being used do not have a say when the party makes its resolutions.

Amai Mugabe urged women to be united and work together as it was retrogressive to backbite each other in the party, adding that it was now the moment to tell each other the truth.

Cde Mugabe requested Zanu-PF at its next Politburo meeting to confront issues affecting it with an open mind.
The highly subscribed rally was also attended by several Politburo members including Cdes Emmerson Mnangagwa, Oppah Muchinguri, Eunice Nomthandazo Moyo, Edna Madzongwe, Rugare Gumbo and several Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament.