OPINION: Yes, the party is supreme to Govt

25 Jan, 2015 - 00:01 0 Views
OPINION: Yes, the party is supreme to Govt President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe at ZANU-PF‘s 6th National People’s Congress held in Harare, Zimbabwe recently

The Sunday Mail

President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe at ZANU-PF‘s 6th National People’s Congress held in Harare, Zimbabwe recently

President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe at ZANU-PF‘s 6th National People’s Congress held in Harare, Zimbabwe recently

While the 6th Zanu-PF National People’s Congress held in December 2014 will largely be remembered for far-reaching, fundamental and transformational changes to the top party leadership, the gathering also came with critical resolutions that will build the party’s efficiency, direct relations between party and Government, and – indeed – lead to better implementation of party and Government policies.

While the leadership changes have the potential to alter the face of Zanu-PF forever, an important part of the Congress came when delegates broke into thematic committees that extensively deliberated on the state of the party and the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation’s key thematic areas: Food Security and Nutrition; Social Services and Poverty Eradication; Value Addition and Beneficiation, and Infrastructure and Utilities.

Other matters regarding youth, women, former freedom fighters and people with disabilities were also discussed.

Concerns, submissions and suggestions from delegates were collated into Congress resolutions that were later presented to, and adopted by, the Central Committee.

This submission analyses and reflects on three key resolutions that direct the nature of the relationship that should exist between Zanu-PF as the ruling party and Government as its implementing arm.

State of the party

Under the state of the party thematic area, Congress resolved to, among other issues, “Urge the party to expeditiously establish policy formulation, development, monitoring and evaluation mechanism as a strategic think-tank to assist the President and First Secretary of the party and party organs as they formulate and implement the party’s policies and programmes.” (Section ii)

Related to this resolution is Section 19, which “Urges the party to institute sound administrative policies, systems and procedures to enhance efficiency, impaired service delivery, accountability and equity at all levels of party administration”.

And closely related and a possible effect of the two resolutions cited above is Section 15, which “Reaffirms that the party is supreme over Government and directs that ministers should report regularly to the Central Committee through the reports of heads of department of the Politburo”.

This submission advances the argument that while Congress should be applauded for putting to rest a number of burning matters between party and Government by unequivocally “reaffirming that the party is supreme over Government” this can only be achieved if prescriptions in Section ii and 19 are fully implemented.

The article proceeds to unpack the role of the party in modern politics, the description and functions of think-tanks and suggests how these can be usefully harnessed to create “sound administrative policies, systems and procedures to enhance efficiency, impaired service delivery, accountability and equity at all levels of party administration that will ensure the party regularly and effectively monitors the implementation of its adopted policies by Government”.

Role of political parties

In essence, political parties provide the connection between politics and the people (often referred to as society).

According to IDEA 2012, the Party normally fulfils the following critical functions:

(i) Pick up demands from society and bundles them into packages shaping human needs into policy prescriptions.

(ii) Develop policies and programmes that can be implemented once the party forms a government.

(iii) Being the main vehicles for recruiting and selecting people for legislative and government office, and

(iv) Overseeing a central government when in power.

In the case of Zanu-PF, function

(i) is carried out when the party goes out consulting people and campaigning, leading to the creation of often popular election manifestos.

Function (ii) is practiced to a limited extent largely due to the absence of a party policy think-tank while function

(iii) is limited due to reluctance to carry out a full scale “cadre deployment policy” as resolved by successive Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conferences since 2005.

Put together, the identified elements affect how the party performs its fourth and critical function of effectively “monitoring central Government”.

Thus, the encouraging Congress resolutions, if implemented successfully, are likely to kick-start the effective functioning of party machinery that has been almost idle over the past few years.

Thus, Zanu-PF should be the source of national purpose, priorities and administrative hierarchy.

Through its organisational channels, which transcend Government structures and its agencies, the party should be able to oversee administrative operations and enforce discipline.

Role of think-tanks

A think-tank can be defined as “a body of experts providing advice and ideas on specific political or economic problems, intensive research and problem solving, predict or plan future development”. (Bettcher, 2012)

They are further responsible for policy analysis, clarifying how policy objectives will be met, key success factors, key result areas and weighing the implications of alternative policy solutions.

Think-tanks can also engage in and analyse grounded political debates, providing innovative solutions to social problems.

They also aid in expanding debate and processing complex information dispensed throughout society while raising new issues, voicing new viewpoints and expanding policy options (Bettcher, 2012).

A prominent example of an effective think-tank is the government-sponsored Development Research Centre of the State Council that is responsible for policy research, strategic review and consulting of issues related to the economic and social development of China.

This acts as an advisory body to the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council.

In Zimbabwe, we have a number of self-proclaimed think-tanks whose main preoccupation is to denigrate Zanu-PF and Government largely to please their foreign handlers and sponsors.

Thus, there is urgent need to heed the constructive Congress resolution that directs the setting up of a party-sponsored and directed think-tank that contributes positively to our policy development, implementation and monitoring.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, it should be beyond any doubt that Government organs are (and should be) regarded as executors of the general line and policies of the party.

They are required and expected to implement the policies and directives of the ruling party without fear or favour.

There should be no room for a struggle between party ideology and the bureaucratic work-style of Government officials.

Government should be accountable to the party, which, in turn, will be answerable to the masses through an election.

Thus, for Zanu-PF to effectively implement the people’s wishes as mandated by the majority of Zimbabweans on July 31, 2013, there is greater need for heightened party control and supervision of all Government organs responsible for administrative and economic policy-implementation.

 

◆ Kurai Prosper Masenyama is the director of Zanu-PF’s Department of Implementation and Economic Empowerment Policy. He writes in his personal capacity.

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