‘First Lady’s Midas touch guides Zanu-PF’

27 Dec, 2015 - 00:12 0 Views
‘First Lady’s Midas touch guides Zanu-PF’ ZANU-PF 1st Secretary President Mugabe chats with the Women's League boss Amai Grace Mugabe after he officially opened the party's ongoing 15th Annual National People's Conference in Victoria Falls. - (Picture by Believe Nyakudjara)

The Sunday Mail

Kuda Bwititi
Chief Reporter
First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe’s stewardship of the Women’s League has seen the organ become the most vibrant unit in Zanu-PF, ruling party National Secretary for Administration Dr Ignatius Chombo has said.
As a result of this, the revolutionary party has set new targets and work plans for next year, premised on the example the Women’s League set in 2015.
Among other things, the Women’s League became the first organ to draw up a budget for its operations and implement programmes of action that have an impact on people’s lives.
The Women’s League embarked on various community projects that brought positive changes to thousands of women around the country, in line with the implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset). Taking a cue from this, the party has now made it mandatory for all departments to implement programme-based budgeting in 2016.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail last week, Dr Chombo said the Women’s League was “the guiding light” that would provide a template for the party’s broad activities for 2016.
“By the first quarter of the year, the Women’s League had already hit the ground running. They started by providing a Results Based Management programme and then they came up with the budget to fund it,” he said.
“So learning from the Women’s League, we are now going to implement programme based budgeting (for 2016). Despite very limited funding from the party, they embarked on their own fund raising activities, which were very successful. They did lots of things on their own.”
Dr Chombo said although Amai Mugabe faced a number of challenges, including operating without an office for a considerable period of time, she had carved out successes.
“I would say it is the department that has made the most significant progress. All their operations are formalised, its secretariat is on top of the situation in spite of the fact that the First Lady’s office was for a long time not even ready for use at the party’s headquarters.
“She was actually working from home. In terms of impact on the ground, we are proud of what the Women’s League has done.
“There is harmony in what they do, there is practical action going on and their projects are there for all to see. They are the ones giving us the guiding light on how we should function.”
According to Dr Chombo, Amai Mugabe drew up innovative strategies to fund party projects, a time the party had no money to implement some initiatives. “Currently, they have breast cancer teams who are moving around in the rural areas spreading awareness on how to detect breast cancer and how to tackle the disease,” he said.
“The First Lady has also gone to her own friends to source for equipment for use by women in various projects. This equipment includes small irrigation kits, hand pumps, among others.
“She has also provided different forms of support for women to embark on projects in the horticulture sector. For example I know of women who received a lorry from her to ferry produce to come into town.”
See page 6 for full interview

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