ZANU fears that opposition parties, civil society and some Western countries could still be strategising to dislodge it from power even after winning the July 31 elections.
BY PATRICE MAKOVA
The party beat its main political rival, the MDC-T, managing to win two-thirds majority in parliament.
In a Central Committee report tabled before the 14th Zanu PF National People’s Conference, which ended in Chinhoyi yesterday, the party said it would remain vigilant against continuing “threats” from non governmental organisations (NGOs), the West, opposition parties and foreign-based Zimbabwean broadcasting stations.
“The party must thus remain vigilant against all the strategies of detractors, no matter how subtle these may be,” the report reads. “The party must therefore be alive to the psychological warfare of instilling fear, uncertainty, disunity and a sense of despondency amongst the country’s populace.”
The report said the West continued to sponsor so-called “pirate” radio stations, namely the Voice of the People, Short Wave Radio Africa and Studio 7, in order to destablise the government. “Daily they spew anti-Zanu PF propaganda. It is observed that this propaganda has the cumulative effect of distorting people’s national pride and diminishes patriotism and results in self-doubt of both their personal and the country’s ability and capacities,” it said. Zanu PF exhorted government to find ways of blocking foreign-based Zimbabwean radio stations as well as come up with innovative ways to positively influence Zimbabweans to think in the spirit of “national interest”.
“In this regard, the department commends the strides made towards depolarising the media as this will go a long way in inculcating a sense of unity within the country as ‘a house united will stand’,” said the party.
Last month, Zanu PF led by party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, dispatched a team to China for an exchange programme. Sources at the conference told The Standard that the team was taught how to monitor social media, Internet and to intercept the foreign-based broadcasting stations.
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The report said Zanu PF remains under attack from Britain, the United States and “white” Commonwealth countries who continue to harbour the regime change agenda.
It said the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently announced plans to intensify the US sanctions regime, despite the partial removal of sanctions by the European Union.
“The debilitative effects of the sanctions will remain until the whole gamut of the economic embargo is totally removed,” Zanu PF said. “This is so, because the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 restricts international financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Development Bank, African Development Fund from freely offering financial assistance and engaging in any business deals with Zimbabwe.” The report said the country continued to witness the perpetration of crimes such as murder, rape, stock thefts, armed robberies, drug and human trafficking and illicit mining and smuggling of precious minerals.
“The local smugglers unashamedly continue to work with criminal syndicates from West Africa and the Middle East and parts of Asia. Such activities unfortunately have adverse consequences on the economic fabric of our society,” it said.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF said it performed well in the July 31 elections, attributing this to party machinery that was “well-oiled and coordinated”.
But the party said there were a number of areas that needed improvement, including deepening of internal party democratic processes, in order to ensure future success. It said primary elections should be conducted transparently and early enough to give more time to heal wounds and mobilise losing candidates so that they can take a lead in campaigning for the party.
“Mobilising of supporters and recruitment of members should be an on-going process in between elections. Consequently political commissars must be equipped with sufficient logistics and permanently remain with the people and in mobilisation mode,” said the report.
It said party discipline at leadership level must be enforced to curb rampant disregard of the party constitution and lack of respect for lower organs of the party which were often unprocedurally dissolved.
