The Sunday News
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu, Pivot
The reassignment of Vice-President Kembo Mohadi to run party affairs on a full-time basis signals a massive operational turnaround to the revolutionary function of the ruling Zanu-PF. This is a very crucial appointment as the party is destined for the 2023 elections in order to draw its mandate renewal from the people of Zimbabwe. While the assignment to run party affairs is philosophically broad and points to vast terrain of obligations and expectations in the interests of the ordinary Zanu-PF loyalists and the bigger aspirations of our people, one cardinal mandate stands out; that is our revolutionary consolidation of power.
In the process and in no unequivocal terms, the party’s ideological rigour must be rediscovered and re-explored for the preservation of our organic function of protecting our national liberation. As the 2023 pilgrimage is upon us, Zanu-PF as the custodian of national sovereignty, national unity and the national economy must effectively take its affirmative stand behind the leadership of His Excellency President Dambudzo Mnangagwa.
The timely reassignment of Cde Mohadi to the party at this very decisive moment, awakens the ancient wisdom of Vladimir Ilich Lenin who posits that ‘‘But the revolution is thoroughgoing. It is on its journey through purgatory. It does its work methodically’’.
The notion of the revolution as ‘‘thoroughgoing’’ entails that the paradigm of the political must be surgically nursed and monitored by seasoned revolutionary shrewdness. Vice President Mohadi as an in-depth player of the armed struggle and arguably one of the self-sacrificed combatants of the liberation war is definitely endowed with an experiential capacity to understand this political season we are headed towards.
History remembers carefully that he is among those who were there in the beginning when ZPRA and Zanla motioned our people towards the phenomenal anti-colonial revolutionary stride. He was also an active participant in making Rhodesia fall. He was also an active architect in the systematic construction of our post-colonial state. As if that is not enough, he was among those who faced the foreign crafted assault of our post-independence nationalist contradictions and disturbances.
Cde Patrick Chinamasa
I have also attested to the benevolent credentials of his commitment to the struggle for nation-building in my autobiography On the Shoulders of Struggle: Memoirs of a Political Insider:
“As one would notice, before the signing of the Unity Accord, efforts were made to victimise some top Zapu officials including the current Vice-President, Cde Kembo Mohadi, Cde Angela Masuku the late Cde Sydney Malunga, Cde Ruth Chinamano, Cde Dumiso Dabengwa and Cde Welshman “MaWelsh” Mabhena, among others. Some ex-ZPRA officers in the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) had also been detained (Mpofu 2020 p. 148).
“Surprisingly, the politicians who were in Zapu and were direct victims of state violence at the time conceded to the rationale of reconciliation and peace-building. As mentioned earlier, the current Vice President, Cde Kembo Mohadi and Cde Angeline Masuku are among some of the surviving and leading political figures who had the first-hand experience of the violence which was targeting ex-Zapu officials. Instead of choosing to fight back, they chose national unity over vengeance (Mpofu 2020 p. 152).”
Without doubt, Cde Mohadi’s place within our national question epitomises virtues of a patriot who has been part of a revolution and ‘‘its journey through purgatory’’ as pointed by Lenin. Likewise, he is a political figure whose path can be traced through the methodical of our revolution. I specifically and deliberately chose to appendage his revolutionary credence to Lenin because Cde Mohadi is a by-product of Russia’s influence to our struggle for liberation through Zapu and ZPRA — to which he entered politics as a trainee:
“The material and ideological benevolence of Eastern countries, mainly Russia, cannot also be ignored if the history of our struggle is to be fully told. From the ZPRA side, several of our combatant forerunners like Dumiso Dabengwa, Phelekezela Report Mphoko, Kembo Mohadi and Tshinga Dube, among other members of the High Command, were products of Russian military training. The reorganisation of the ZPRA military strategy from 1967 was an extension of the military diplomacy which existed between our military structures and the Soviet Union (Mpofu 2020 p.3).”
So in terms of the ideological refocusing Zanu-PF is in safe hands ahead of 2023. The mandate to handle party affairs is instructive of a revolutionary ideological pivoting of the party. Therefore, bestowing such a mandate to a decorated cadre whose political grooming is rooted in a nation whose role was crucial in mapping our independence cannot be underestimated. The decision by President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa to restructure the party through a full time executive deployment gives a high level supervision benchmark to all activities of Zanu-PF. One of the key areas demanding such high level supervision includes our mandate of bringing more bona fide voter affiliates to the party.
Therefore, it makes a lot of sense why the President in his wisdom also saw it fit to appoint Cde Patrick Chinamasa as the interim Political Commissar of the party.
Going forward there is need to strategically and effectively: Define the Party Policy Agenda Framing in line with the ethos of the Second Republic; Engage in Policy Setting, Planning, Implementation, Assessment to help the Party achieve its founding goals towards the 2023 elections and the attainment of Vision 2030; Establish tenets and the functionality of the Party’s Supremacy over Government; Monitor and Evaluate of all the party’s departments and wings’ policies in the fulfilment of the annual People’s Conference Resolutions; Develop and manage programs that drive the party’s policy direction towards sustainable growth and enhancement of the transformative values of the Second Republic and; Ensure compliance with corporate governance tenets as the professionalisation of the party is taking a fast pace.
Meanwhile, we are ready to reclaim our political space in 2023 and redefine the course of our nation’s prosperity as prescribed by our national development agenda. Beyond everything, Zimbabwe must win!
n The author, Dr Obert Moses Mpofu, is Zanu-PF’s Secretary for Administration for Administration in the Politburo.
