The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube Sunday News Reporter
NINE have gone and only one has survived.
This is the story of Zanu-PF provincial chairpersons who have all but one, been shown the exit door for using their positions to fan factionalism in their respective provinces.
The nine that have been left in the cold are Cdes Ray Kaukonde (Mashonaland East), Temba Mliswa (Mashonaland West), Callisto Gwanetsa (Masvingo), Jason Machaya (Midlands), Amos Midzi (Harare), Andrew Langa (Matabeleland South), Professor Callistus Ndlovu (Bulawayo), John Mvundura (Manicaland) and Luke Mushore (Mashonaland Central).
The sole surviving provincial boss, Matabeleland North chairperson, Cde Richard Moyo, has attributed his survival to the unity of purpose in his province and his ability to listen and accept advice from elders within party ranks.
Sunday News caught up with Cde Moyo on the sidelines of a Zanu-PF Provincial Co-ordinating Committee meeting last Friday and he said his secret lay in his ability to take advice from party cadres and remaining loyal to the goals and attributes of the revolutionary party.
He said unity was key to any set-up and that all that factions accomplished was mere destruction.
“I was in Harare just last week and everyone was praising us saying Matabeleland North is the cream province. Someone might think as the provincial chairperson I did all this alone but to be frank it has been the Politburo members from the province who are ever advising me who have made this province what it is today.
“I also thank God that I am advisable; I do not take my elders’ advice and throw it away, but I use it. The problem with some of us is that when one becomes chairperson, with President Mugabe giving them all the powers in the province, they feel they are now invincible and forget that it is the people who gave them those very positions. They start being big-headed and think they are bigger than the people, which is definitely not the way to behave,” said Cde Moyo.
He boasted that Matabeleland North did not know any factions as they simply worked as a unit.
“Factionalism does not build anything. As it stands, I can safely say that Matabeleland North does not know of any factions. We are simply Zanu-PF; that is all that matters because in all fairness, unity is key to any development agenda,” said Cde Moyo.
Cde Moyo joined Zanu-PF in 1991, starting as a cell member before being elected youth chairperson for Magobho district in Umguza in 1996, a post he held for 14 years.
He was then elected chairperson for Magobho district in the main wing in 2006 before being appointed acting political commissar when the substantive commissar was suspended.
Cde Moyo was then elected district co-ordinating committee chairperson in 2009 and after the provincial chairperson and his deputy were suspended, he was elected provincial chairperson in 2012.
Speaking at the Provincial Co-ordinating Committee, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Dr Obert Mpofu, also heaped praise on Cde Moyo and the province as a whole, noting that they came out clean as a result of discipline and respecting each other.
“War veterans and the youth came to me saying they want to help clean up the province but I told them that we will deal with such problems personally; this is our house and we have the strength of managing each other. We are here to advise each other and whenever someone seems to be going wayward, we tell them the truth and bring them back on track.
“I have said it on a number of occasions that if you see there being any problems in Matabeleland North it would be because I have personally failed as a leader. The brunt won’t be with the chairperson but me because I would have totally failed my mandate being one of the province’s elders.
“The truth of the matter is that we came out clean because of discipline. We can be Politburo members but we cannot be bigheaded. We are here to advise and build each other; we might have had conflicts in the past but we have known how to manage and deal with them internally,” said Dr Mpofu.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Matabeleland North, who is also the deputy secretary for information and publicity in Zanu-PF, Cde Cain Mathema, echoed Dr Mpofu’s sentiments revealing that even in the Politburo, members from the province spoke with one voice.
“When there is something that we are not agreeing on, we rather go and talk it out on the balcony so that by the time we get into the meeting we would have resolved our differences and we would be so united. I guess that is one secret that has seen us being the envy of other provinces.
“We don’t want any factionalism because it brings nothing to us except chaos and destruction, as a province we remain united and resolute to the goals of the party and our support to President Mugabe’s rule,” said Cde Mathema.
Speaker of Parliament, Cde Jacob Mudenda, said it was no secret that they were the best province, noting that all the problems being faced in other provinces would never infiltrate Matabeleland North as the province shunned factionalism.
