Story by Tambaoga Gora
The ruling ZANU PF party is treating new affiliate organisations with caution in order to weed out opportunists and guard against abuse of the Party’s name.
Representatives of more than 30 ZANU PF Party affiliates in Mashonaland West province met the Provincial leadership this weekend as the revolutionary party moves to stem out those formed for ulterior motives.
ZANU PF Mashonaland West Provincial commissar Cde John Yotamu said, “You must be registered with the party because we have other affiliates who are moving around saying For ED while stealing, using the name of the President. That is what we want to prevent or affiliates who come to look for money at ZANUPF, we want to prevent that.”
ZANU PF Mashonaland West Provincial Chairperson, Cde Mary Mliswa implored the affiliate organisations to put in place proper governance structures and help the province meet its target of one million votes.
“We want to work with affiliate organisations with structures here in Mashonaland West province, but you must have clear reporting lines. An organisation must have a headquarters. We want you to help the meet our 1 million voter target which was just above 600 000 as of May last year.”
The meeting was also an opportunity for the organisations to pledge their allegiance to the party.
“As the Disabled For ED we are happy with the party’s inclusion policy and we going to pay back the President by mobilising our members to vote for ZANU PF,” a representative of the Disabled For ED association said.
“As Men BelieveED, we have several strategies to ensure all men participate in the country’s governance systems,” noted a representative of the association.
“As Gule flFor ED, we are more than 300 000 in this province and we want to help the party in ensuring that all the nyau dancing community members are registered to vote.”
A Young Women For ED representative said, “We were the first to pledge our support to the ruling party and to date, we have mobilised women through various empowerment projects.”
Anchored on its ZANU PF mantra of inclusivity the number of affiliate organizations has increased as the party gears up for harmonised elections this year.