The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Sunday News Reporter
ZANU-PF First Secretary President Mnangagwa will tomorrow launch the ruling party’s electronic membership card in Kwekwe under a pilot project which will see the revolutionary party distributing more than 250 000 cards in the Midlands Province.
Zanu-PF has made changes to the membership card which initially doubled as a debit card linked to the People’s Own Savings Company (POSB) and could be used for electronic payments.
This was designed to promote the use of plastic money among its membership as well as simplifying subscription payment methods. However, due to some irregularities, the revolutionary party has designed a new card which does not perform plastic money payments, but enables the party to have an electronic database for its members.
The electronic cards contain a party member’s personal details including a picture and electronic chips.
Zanu-PF National Secretary for Legal Affairs Cde Patrick Chinamasa said the pilot project would be launched in Kwekwe, Midlands Province tomorrow by President Mnangagwa.
“President Mnangagwa will on Monday (tomorrow) launch the Zanu-PF electronic membership card in Kwekwe. This is a pilot project in which we intend to see the efficacy of the new membership registration exercise. The card will be issued at cell level which is the lowest structure of the party. Once successful the programme will then be rolled out to other provinces,” he said.
Cde Chinamasa said the revolutionary party intends to distribute at least 250 000 cards to its members in the Midlands province starting tomorrow.
“Initially we had the electronic card which could be used as a swipe card for plastic payments. We realised that it was complicating things. This time there are no banks involved. These are just membership cards that contain a party member’s personal details including a mugshot. We have made a lot of improvements to the new membership card.
Initially we want to issue 250 000 membership cards before rolling it out to other provinces,” he said.
Midlands Province initially targeted registering at least 800 000 members under the new system before the 2023 harmonised elections.
