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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Matabeleland South Bureau Chief 

ZANU-PF Matabeleland South province has upscaled preparations for the upcoming National People’s Congress with the province reaffirming its full support for President Mnangagwa as the party’s Presidential candidate for next year’s harmonised elections.

The party has also intensified preparations for council by-elections which will be held in two wards of the province on Thursday. The party leadership is also going to take an active part in spearheading campaigns against veld fires in the province following an unfortunate incident that killed 10 men in Umzingwane last week.

The party leadership held a Provincial Co-ordinating Committee (PCC) meeting in Gwanda on Saturday and the province came up with resolutions for the congress.

In line with tradition and compliance with its constitution, Zanu-PF will hold its 7th Congress from 26 to 29 October.

The Congress will be held at the Robert Mugabe Square in Harare and will draw delegates from the Central Committee members, National Consultative Assembly, Women’s League national executive, Youth league executive members, District Co-ordinating Committee executives and one district executive chairperson per party district drawn from either the Main body, Women’s League, Youth League or War Veterans League.

In an interview after the meeting, Zanu-PF Matabeleland South provincial chairman, Cde Mangaliso Ndlovu said there was unity of purpose in the province in support of President Mnangagwa as his works and interventions were testimony that the country could attain Vision 2030. 

“We held a PCC meeting where we were looking at our preparations for the congress, especially fundraising. We came up with strategies to ensure that we meet our target within the remaining few days. We are confident that we will meet our target or get close to it. We also looked at our resolutions for the upcoming congress and we were unanimous as before in that President E D Mnangagwa is our sole Presidential candidate for 2023 elections,” he said. “As we go to congress we want to go there to uplift him. We are quite satisfied that he has led the party and country to greater heights. Today we believe that Vision 2030 is possible because of the programmes and strategies he had rolled out. We came up with a number of resolutions but we came up with a committee to refine them and we will be able to review them before congress for presentation.”

He said the meeting also discussed the party’s state of preparedness for the by-elections which will be held on 22 October in Ward 4 in Insiza and Ward 2 in Matobo. Cde Ndlovu said they were confident that the party will win the by-elections. He said preliminary work has shown that people on the ground they appreciate what the Zanu-PF Government has done led by President Mnangagwa. 

Cde Ndlovu said over the years the party has also engaged with the people and given them time to air their views and concerns highlighting what they need addressed. “Some of these concerns we have been addressing over the past four years especially using the devolution funds. We have also managed to encourage councils to accelerate completion of some of these projects,” he said.

“We also discussed the tragedy which befell the province in Umzingwane where we lost 10 lives in a veld fire. We agreed as the party province that we will play a critical role in raising awareness on the dangers of veld fires and we will be supporting Government departments in this work.”

The party constitution in Article 5, Section 25, states that the party shall convene an ordinary Congress once every five years. The 7th National People’s Congress, will elect the President and First Secretary of the party who will represent the party as the presidential candidate for the 2023 harmonised elections among other issues. – @DubeMatutu