EDITORIAL COMMENT: The hard work starts now

30 Nov, 2014 - 00:11 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

The sun is setting. The long, grotesque shadows cast by short men – and women – are fading, losing their borrowed power to frighten.

Night is approaching, and we know there is no bogeyman hiding under the bed.

The dawn will bring its new challenges, its new frontiers and its new doppelgangers. This is the time for Zanu-PF to build something that is lasting, meaningful and efficient.

Never mind the unrestrained flights of fancy embarked upon by so-called bigwigs who claim the public media has a factional agenda against them, and dutifully reported on by a pliant private Press that has shown how unreliable it is when it comes to interpreting political developments in the country.

But we will not gloat. We cannot be smug about simply doing the job expected of us by the nation.

Besides, there is much work ahead, beyond the ruling party’s National Congress this week and well into the future.

The recent upheavals have served the primary purpose of clearing the decks and dusting out much of the cobwebs.

The ultimate purpose, though, should be to ensure the ruling party pivots back to the founding ideals and principles that enabled it to come into power in the first place.

And these are ideals and principles premised on putting the needs and aspirations of the majority ahead of all other considerations.

For starters, there is need to ensure that this kind of rot is never allowed to set in ever again.

Zanu-PF can do this by primarily ensuring that it gets itself a political commissar who is deserving of the post.

The current occupant of that office — and we say this without any malice — has proven to be wholly inadequate.

Surely he should know the role of the commissar, which the party likes to refer to as “tete vemusangano”.

Instead, he has chosen to be silent as factionalists insult the President and threaten to tear up the party.

In-as-much as the ruling party cannot afford to have a VP, chair, spokesperson and secretary for administration who work at cross-purposes with their boss and even seek his elimination, it should not countenance having a political commissar who is a mere factional pawn.

Why should the media do his job for him? Why should a ruling party allow itself to be so infiltrated by incompetence?

This commissar was silent as money was used to influence the outcomes of the 2013 provincial executive elections, and the 2014 Youth and Women’s wings’ elective processes.

In essence, on his watch the structures of the ruling party withered and died. He was a cheerleader for a pretender to power as the party went to the dogs.

Another issue that the ruling party must deal with decisively going forth from this Congress is that of corruption.

We have all seen how graft had eaten into the core of a party that was established on socialist principles.

It was a moral and institutional corruption that gave us the “shefu” syndrome and allowed short men — and women — with long shadows to loot with impunity.

It allowed them to create an atmosphere of fear that gave them room to claim an undeserving bigwig status which they used to impose leaders, bully opponents and amass wealth.

A strong message must be sent out.

Over and above the political processes of relieving us of these burdensome people, the ruling party must ensure the state machinery is used to prosecute any and all criminals.

Much work needs to be done.

We expect to see competent people working in efficient structures and being held accountable for all their actions.

Pamberi neZimbabwe!

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