Cde Oppah Muchinguri

Cletus Mushanawani in Mutare—

This year is critical for Zanu-PF as it needs to work harder and win the hearts of the electorate before the 2018 harmonised elections, the party’s national secretary for transport and welfare, Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has said. Addressing a Zanu-PF Manicaland Provincial Co-ordinating Committee meeting at Mutare Polytechnic yesterday, Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri said it was no longer business as usual to all party members as they needed to go an extra mile in their work.

“2017 is a critical year for Zanu-PF as we need to work extra hard to win the forthcoming elections,” she said. “We can only win if we have unity of purpose. We should respect party structures and focus on the major business ahead of us winning elections.”

Speaking at the same occasion, Zanu-PF acting provincial chairman Dr Samuel Undenge called for collective efforts from all Zanu-PF members to ensure a resounding victory next year.

“We promised President Mugabe that we will sweep all the 26 seats in Manicaland come 2018,” he said. “This can only be achieved if there is collective effort from everyone in Zanu-PF.

“We should all work together and cover every corner of the province. The grassroots should know what is happening in the party for them to come up with informed decisions.

“Although the opposition parties are crumbling, we should not relax. Instead, we should maximise our efforts to completely bury them next year. Zimbabwe People First suffered a stillbirth, while MDC-T is a lame duck as usual. As Zanu-PF, we should demonstrate to the nation that we are a people-orientated party. We must respond to the people’s needs and appreciations.”

The party will be deploying Politburo and Central Committee members to address inter-district meetings in all the party’s districts in Manicaland. Zanu-PF scored a number of successes in Manicaland last year after scooping all the three parliamentary by-elections.

Cdes Isau Mupfumi, Chris Chingosho and Nokuthula Matsikenyere won in Dangamvura-Chikanga, Headlands and Chimanimani West by-elections respectively. The party also won in all local authority by-elections.

The party’s provincial secretary for administration, Cde Kenneth Saruchera, highlighted some of the achievements saying: “We managed to secure land to construct our provincial headquarters here in Mutare. We are in the process of mobilising resources to ensure that construction starts in earnest.

“Our Women’s League managed to acquire land for their farming projects, while the Youth League managed to secure land for residential stands in all the districts across Manicaland.

“As Manicaland, we scored a first by becoming the first province to have the Chitepo Ideological College workshop. The workshop was held in Vumba and participants will soon get their certificates. These certificates will be useful for those aspiring to hold political offices as they should be attached on the individuals’ curriculum vitae.”

On the challenges faced by the province, Cde Saruchera said: “We faced acute transport shortages as well as financial resources to conduct some of the party business.

“We also had manpower shortages as the party is still freezing the recruitment process of some office bearers. We are still grappling with the issue of unemployment and company closures in Manicaland, an area which we need to move with speed to address.”