The Sunday Mail
Dr Obert Mpofu
THERE are but very few fulfilling things in this life.
The ability to be in touch with the people — the real people who believe in the party’s cause — is one of them.
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of engaging with the people again and again, and I say to you, there is no better feeling.
This wave of by-elections, necessitated by “Cyclone Tshabangu”, has led me back to the heart and core of Matabeleland North province, Lupane, where I have spent many a day and night campaigning and mobilising for the ZANU PF’s Lupane East constituency National Assembly candidate.
This has been quite a successful exercise, as I have been able to connect with the people of this great province once more.
The desire by our people to win back this seat is amazing.
Oh, how delightful it is that the mass people’s party is well-loved in Matabeleland North province!
Indeed, there are fewer pleasures in this world than being able to connect with one’s own and speaking the same language of great love for one’s nation and the desire to see it prosper.
This is what ZANU PF stands for.
This is the promise that ZANU PF gives to the people of this great nation, and this will forever endure.
The grassroots are truly where the people are.
It is shameful that other political parties shun the grassroots and do not value them or regard them as important.
Only ZANU PF has been able to understand this and harness the power of the grassroots, for it all began with the people, and this must never be forgotten.
My party ZANU PF’s victories over the years have been guaranteed by its great love and respect for the grassroots.
Our structures make it possible for us to be able to fully incorporate our people and have them take part in our movement.
This makes it a people’s movement driven by, and for, the people.
In my recent exploits, I have picked up quite a few interesting things, chief among them, how the people have grown tired of the endless and pointless politicking perpetuated by the opposition.
The people have grown weary of the opposition’s theatrics.
Any political party that distances itself from the people will never prevail.
Without the people, there is no politics to speak of.
This is why I have chosen to stay put where the people are and communicate my party ZANU PF’s message, as well as His Excellency President ED Mnangagwa’s message, throughout this by-elections period.
Our people need to be told of the party’s and our leader’s commendable achievements and the ongoing developmental projects.
The message is indeed simple and straightforward — ZANU PF and His Excellency President ED Mnangagwa’s promises are real and for the people!
Let us not be distracted by sideshows.
Zimbabwe is at a crucial stage where we need to hold the ship steady and push our economic developmental initiatives to completion.
So much has been done over these past five years that songs will be written in the future and tales told about how ZANU PF, in the New Dispensation, forever changed Zimbabwe’s fortunes.
An interesting aspect is how my party, ZANU PF, has always been the one forging the country’s fate in more ways than one.
From independence to the Land Reform Programme that empowered our people and now Vision 2030, which will turn our country into an upper middle-income economy, it has always been ZANU PF at the centre of it all.
Yes, there have been challenges, no doubt, largely perpetuated by our detractors, but we have been able to overcome them and we will continue overcoming them through our unity of purpose.
As we head to the polls this coming week, let us all remember the ruling party ZANU PF’s great works and its enduring legacy as the people’s movement.
*Dr Obert Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of ZANU PF. He writes in his own capacity.
