THERE will not be any constitutional or leadership changes at the Zanu PF annual people’s conference in Victoria Falls next month, party spokesperson Simon Khaya-Moyo said yesterday.
BY NUNURAI JENA
Khaya-Moyo said this as a warning to ruling party officials and supporters whom he said were tussling for positions in the on-going party restructuring exercise. He said he was surprised by the interest generated by the conference.
“The conference cannot amend the constitution. The point is simple; we as the party have structures and the highest organ of the party is the congress, but in between congresses we have the central committee which can make amendments and decisions,” he said.
“If there are any changes, it is the central committee that looks at that, not the conference. All these speculations, I don’t know where they are coming from. We are not in a hurry to amend the constitution as it was amended and endorsed at the last congress.”
“Why amend it now? For what? To achieve what?” he asked.
There have been reports that a faction in Zanu PF was pushing for the conference to endorse a constitutional clause that one of the party’s vice-presidents should be a woman. The reports say the clause was targeted at Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa who was purportedly being fought by a group of young turks dubbed G40, which is allegedly loyal to First Lady, Grace Mugabe.
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But Khaya-Moyo said the focus of the conference was to look at the resolutions passed during last year’s congress and to focus on the implementation of Zim-Asset.
“The rank and file members of the party want to know how far the party has implemented Zim-Asset,” he said. Khaya-Moyo said there was no point in fighting over positions when the constitution was clear what should be done at any given time.
“We want to know how far we have gone with the implementation of Zim-Asset because that is our economic blueprint. All these other power issues being flighted all over, I don’t know what that is in aid of. Why should we be talking about positions when the constitution is clear…our central focus should be the economy, that is what people want — the growth of our economy,” said Khaya-Moyo.
He said the issue of vice-presidents was resolved at the last congress. He said the constitution was amended and endorsed, and it was resolved that President Robert Mugabe appoints the two vice-presidents, thus it was up to him to choose a man and a woman or both men or both women.
Moyo was responding to questions about the alleged purging of members believed to be aligned to the faction linked to Mnangagwa.
Sources said members aligned to Mna-ngagwa in Mashonaland West were refused accreditation to the December conference.
