Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s speech at the just-ended Zanu PF annual conference was arguably the highlight of the event held in Mutare because it was a candid audit of the ruling party’s trajectory.
After winning yet another disputed election in 2023, Zanu PF has been doing its best to squander the mandate by engrossing itself in selfish pursuits such as the campaign to extend President Emmmerson Mnangagwa’s term beyond the five years mandated in the constitution.
Last year, the ruling party passed a resolution that directed the government to change the country’s laws to allow Mnangagwa to remain in office until 2030.
That campaign was conflated with what should be the national Vision 2030, which envisages Zimbabwe becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.
Millions of dollars were thrown into the political campaign that has divided Zanu PF into two camps backing Mnangagwa and Chiwenga respectively.
The infighting has spilled into government with some ministers now showing open disdain to the VP, who is supposed to be their supervisor in government.
Chiwenga rebuked the narrow-minded approach by those pushing the 2030 agenda when he reminded them that their task as the ruling party was to “build a people-centred economy that empowers every Zimbabwean and ensures that our national wealth benefits all, not just a privileged few.”
“Economic empowerment must be genuine — equipping all our people with the means to produce, innovate and own their destiny,” he said.
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“That is the essence of Vision 2030 and that is the essence of revolutionary continuity.”
He said Vision 2030 must be understood as a “party and national covenant, not a personal personal pursuit.”
“It is about the Zimbabwe we will bequeath to generations to come,” he added.
Chiwenga also spoke against the entitlement culture that is now common in Zanu PF when he said “the liberation struggle was a collective mission in which the masses, that is, the people, youths, traditional leaders and children — all played a decisive role.”
That this brutal assessment of where Zanu PF stands today where it has lost its connection with the people as its leaders obsess with self-preservation and obscene accumulation of wealth, was made by a member of the party’s presidium is telling.
There is a context as to why Chiwenga spoke the way he did. The VP has been pushing back against calculated moves to sideline him by the Mnangagwa aligned faction in the race to succeed the 83 year-old ruler. However, the issues that he raised at the conference resonated with the majority of Zimbabweans, who have been at the receiving end of the misgovernance. Zimbabweans would be heartened to know that not all the Zanu PF leaders are blind to the destruction by the ruling party.
