The Sunday Mail
Dr Ignatius Chombo
The December 2015 Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conference in Victoria Falls provided a fitting shutdown to the year and allowed the revolutionary party to reignite itself ahead of 2016. Our Chief Reporter, Kuda Bwititi, spoke to Zanu-PF National Secretary for Administration Dr Ignatius Chombo to unpack the conference and preview what 2016 holds for Zanu-PF and the nation. The following are excerpts of the conversation.
Zanu-PF’s constitution provides that every five years there is a congress and that congress has specific duties.
It is the principal and supreme organ of the party and its composition is as follows; members of the Central Committee, the National Consultative Assembly, members of the Women’s League, and National Council of the Youth League, members of the Provincial Coordinating Committees and members of various Provincial Executive Councils and unless otherwise directed by the Central Committee, there will also be Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary, Political Commissar and Treasurer, two members of the Women’s League, and two members from the Youth League from every District Executive Council of the Party.
According to our Constitution the powers and functions of Congress are to:
(i) be the supreme policy-making organ of the party;
(ii) elect the President and the First Secretary;
(iii) elect members of the Central Committee;
(iv) formulate, pronounce and declare all policies of the party;
(v) formulate and issue directives, rules and regulations to all organs of the party;
(vi) approve the financial statements of accounts;
(vii) be the supreme and ultimate authority for the implementation and supervision of the policies, directives, rules and regulations of the party; and
(viii) have the power and authority to amend the party constitution
Article 6 of the party constitution calls for the National People’s Conference to be held in between congress.
The powers and Functions of the National People’s Conference are to:
(1) receive and consider reports of the Central Committee on behalf of Congress;
(2) co-ordinate and supervise implementation of decisions and programmes of congress by the Central Committee;
(3) declare the President of the party elected at Congress as the State Presidential candidate of the party;
(4) exercise any such powers and authority as may be incidental thereto; and
(5) make resolutions for implementation by the Central Committee
Conference a success
The conference we conducted recently in Victoria Falls was very successful because firstly all provinces held inter-district conferences.
This is where the entire provinces meet to decide, analyse and assess party performance and the economy in that particular year in that particular province, and come up with areas that need attention in terms of state of the party, state of the economy and welfare of the people. All ten provinces met.
Before these provincial conferences, districts were given an opportunity to have their meetings. These meetings were held at district level for all organs, which are the Women’s League, Youth League and main wing. Resolutions were made from the administrative districts of the party and then collated for presentation at provincial level.
The process was carried out thoroughly as input came from all members of the party.
What this means is that as a party we reached the grassroots to say how well are we doing, where are we doing right and where are we getting it wrong?
So the resolutions made at all these meetings came down from the people right up to the conference. After the conference resolutions are out, we circulate them to authorities in Government to say this is what the people said and this is what they want. Secondly, the conference was successful in that all members participated in raising funds. Everyone was asked to contribute. Each province met its target, with some even exceeding the figures. Party members were asked to make donations at district level, where some would make donations of a dollar, which would seem small at first, but actually went a long way in heightening conference preparations.
The third reason why I say the conference was a success is that the Central Committee met on two occasions in the second half of the year to review and approve the agenda.
The Politburo met six times to discuss preparations. In his wisdom, the President and First Secretary created a Conference Co-ordinating Committee which was headed by myself, in my capacity as Secretary for Administration, to co-ordinate everything. There were sub-committees on welfare, health, organisation, entertainment, information, fundraising and so forth.
Another reason why the conference was a success is that all the by-elections had gone our way.
There was euphoria in the party, especially for a province such as Bulawayo where we won six seats after having none in the 2013 elections.
Related to that, the processes to re-organise the structures of the party spearheaded by the National Political Commissar in all the provinces also kept members busy throughout the year.
From where I sit, all preparatory work was done properly. When we got to Victoria Falls, we gave the grassroots the opportunity to speak. But before this (Finance Minister) Cde (Patrick) Chinamasa was given time to explain how we are doing in terms of Zim-Asset. The 12 ministers who have to do with the economy were also given a chance to speak. The aim was for the members to hear from the ministers themselves, the horses’ mouths, the measures they are putting in place in terms of the economy.
This was from the preamble that had been given by Minister Chinamasa. This process was a unique way of interacting with the grassroot members.
This meant delegates had something to take home, to brief their colleagues, on the progress made under Zim-Asset. This was a unique process and it was the first time that such a strategy had been adapted for the conference.
Economy First
After this we divided people into nine thematic committees to focus on key issues, which were:
(1) State of the economy;
(2) food security, nutrition and agriculture;
(3) social services, poverty eradication and labour;
(4) infrastructure development and utilities; and
(4) value addition and beneficiation.
We also had liberation war heritage, religion, sport and culture. This did not have financial value but cultural value in that it enriches the harmony that we require. How we are cultured plays an important role on how we run our economy.
There were also the issues of women’s and youths’ affairs. These discussions were linked to what the provinces had already discussed in the inter-provincial meetings and the causes they had at conference. Such a thorough process meant people’s views and concerns were heard.
We had report backs from the committees as well as provincial chairpersons on what the people said from each province. There the aspirations of each province were well articulated. It was His Excellency who came up with these ideas. Another success was that the social welfare of the delegates was attended to. There was enough food for the delegates and the food could have lasted for even three more days. The President is the Chair of the Politburo and the Central Committee and this constitutes the Management Committee of Conference. So all credit should go to him.
It was he who gave us the guidance and the direction. He heads the Management Committee of the Conference assisted by the two Vice-Presidents. The finalised resolutions will be out at the beginning of next year, it is just a matter of collating what the people said because more than two-thirds of the issues were agreed upon unanimously. The theme of the conference was to compliment Zim-Asset. The theme, procedures and processes of conference all jelled together. We are a party that wants to win elections and we were able to link Zim-Asset, the 10-Point Economic Plan and the outcome of the conference. This all goes back to our manifesto of 2013.
The conference was also a success because the President’s speech was unifying. He called for unity of purpose and he delivered a clarion call for members to refocus their energies. This called on people to focus on addressing the most important issue at hand – the economic aspirations of our people.
Discipline
In terms of disciplinary action and votes of no confidence, this is clearly laid out in Article 28 of the party’s constitution. Section 265 states that a “motion of no confidence shall be by a simple majority of at least two-thirds of all members of the appropriate organ provided that where a vote of no confidence is passed against one-third of the total membership of any organ, that organ shall automatically dissolve itself and new elections shall be held”.
So it should be understood that for any vote of no confidence to take place, there should be a two-thirds vote of members of that organ to approve it.
Section 266 also states that a “motion of no confidence must specify and detail the reasons thereof which reasons shall fall into any one of the following categories, namely (a) incompetence and/or dereliction of duty; (b) gross misconduct; (c) disloyalty or treachery”.
In Section 267 it is stated that a member or office-holder on whom a vote of no confidence has been passed by an appropriate organ shall:
“(a) not qualify to hold any other office in any organ of the party for a period of three years from the date on which the vote of no confidence was passed, if the said vote is on the grounds of incompetence and/ or dereliction of duty;
“(b) be suspended from the membership of the party for a period of five years from the date on which the vote of no confidence was passed, if the said vote is on the grounds of gross misconduct; and
“(c) be expelled from the party from the date on which the vote of no confidence was passed, if the vote of no confidence is on the grounds of disloyalty or treachery.”
Section 268 of the constitution states that “a vote of no confidence shall be subject to confirmation by the National Disciplinary Committee of the party”.
This will authenticate whether the signatures are authentic or not. It is also important to note that votes of no confidence are done at the appropriate organ. If they so wish to add other provisions regarding votes of no confidence they can do this by advocating for an amendment of the constitution but not to give grounds that do not exist in the current constitution. We want to guard against abuse of the processes so that we avoid cases where people do not use the votes of no confidence to settle personal scores.
2016: Bigger and better
Looking forward to 2016, I can say that given the successes of the conference, and given the resounding victories in by-elections, and the fact that prophecies of doom who said Zanu-PF was imploding were proven wrong. 2016 is going to be a very important year in the life of Zanu-PF.
We are going into 2016, bigger, stronger and more united. We enjoy a huge majority in both the National Assembly and Senate.
We have gone through a restructuring programme whereby we are now able to account for our numbers. There are going to be a number of firsts for Zanu-PF in 2016.
For the first time, Zanu-PF will have a budget for each department. This is because we have completed an organogram for each department, where we have done the job description for all workers. This was done to bring in professionalism and efficiency. When that is done, this will enable us to account for the work that everyone is doing.
For the first time, we will have evaluations of what work has been done and what can be done better. We are improving the communication between the employees and the secretaries who lead those departments.
We are also going to have an evaluation of all our departmental heads and directors. The job descriptions will be clearly defined so that every worker knows his/her responsibilities.
We are also going to ask every department to come up with a budget.
First Lady’s Midas touch
The only department that has made progress and has come up with a budget and made efforts to implement its budget is the Women’s League head by the First Lady.
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 there projects are there for all to see. They are the ones giving us the guiding light on how we should function.
By the first quarter of the year, the Women’s League had already hit the ground running. They started by providing a programme and then they came up with the budget to fund a programme.
So learning from the Women’s League, we are now going to implement programme-based budgeting. Despite very limited funding from the party, they embarked on their own fund raising activities, which were very successful. Currently, they have breast cancer teams moving around rural areas spreading awareness on how to detect breast cancer and how to tackle the disease.
The First Lady has also gone to her own friends to source equipment for use by women in various projects, including small irrigation kits and hand pumps, among others. She has provided different forms of support for women to embark on projects in the horticulture sector. I know of women who received a lorry from her to ferry produce.
That is what secretaries and heads of departments ought to do. It is not my business to tell them what to do, as I can only co-ordinate them. She has led the way in showing that the party has moved forward from the malaise that was there during the (Didymus) Mutasa era. Hiring and firing of persons was done unilaterally without regard to procedures. More importantly, people hired had no relationship to the job – but they had a relationship to Mutasa.
