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ZANU-PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere (seated behind desk) and Temba Mliswa (standing) shaking hands after Mr Mliswa’s by-election win over Zanu-PF in Norton

WE were taken aback by sentiments raised at a meeting of zanu-pf provincial chairpersons and political commissars who met at the party headquarters in Harare on Wednesday that appeared to walk out of step with the progressive resolutions of the 16th Annual National People’s Conference, just a month after the indaba that discussed issues keeping people awake at night.

Barring reiterating the endorsement of President Mugabe as the 2018 Presidential candidate, the communiqué was shockingly petty.

We let the communiqué speak;

“ . . . as provincial chairpersons and political commissars, we notice with concern the practice by some of our senior party leaders who are now and again seen in the company of some elements of people who were expelled from zanu-pf for gross indiscipline. Party leaders should not be seen to be associating and entertaining people who were expelled from the party for indiscipline, which involved disrespect of the party leadership.”

Ironically, the convener of the meeting, national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere was himself captured several times hobnobbing with expelled, acerbic former Mashonaland West provincial chairman, and independent legislator for Norton, Mr Temba Mliswa.

Such was their camaraderie that Mr Mliswa made overtures for the withdrawal of the $20 million lawsuit he was slapped with by Cde Kasukuwere.

If this does not illustrate the absurdity of the communiqué, we do not know what will.

What we would have expected of a gathering of the party’s provincial leadership is a meeting of minds in line with President Mugabe’s clarion call to deliver on Zim-Asset.

The fact that someone has been expelled or suspended from zanu-pf does not make them a mortal, permanent enemy as Cde Kasukuwere and Mr Mliswa have shown.

In fact, precedent shows that suspended or expelled officials who show contrition and attend zanu-pf and national functions, are soon rehabilitated and find their way back into the party.

Cases in point being Cdes Webster Shamu, Nicholas Goche, Ezra Chadzamira, Kizito Chivamba, and Joel Biggie Matiza to mention just a few.

The national commissar as the man entrusted with minding the party engine should know that politics is a game of numbers, and numbers are boosted by winning people over and not banishing them from the party.

Be that as it may, it was unforgivable that the provincial leaders allowed themselves to be diverted to petty issues at a time some Harare residents are dying of typhoid, and struggling to navigate the numerous service delivery challenges wrought by the ineptitude of successive MDC-T led councils.

Zanu-PF has traditionally done badly in Harare, and one would have thought commissars and chairpersons who know that there is an election looming in 18 months would discuss strategies of wresting the city from the ruinous clutches of the MDC-T.

The questions of the day are certainly not the Zanu-PF presidential candidate for 2018, President Mugabe was long endorsed as was affirmed in Masvingo.

That is a done deal.

The questions relate to the economy, how to turn it around expeditiously, the rehabilitation of infrastructure, how to ensure command agriculture delivers for the nation, among other things.

In short the questions relate to how Zanu-PF can successfully deliver on its 2013 election promises to create an enabling environment for citizens to thrive and realise their dreams.

Already the World Bank has predicted that the economy will grow by at least 3.8 percent this year. And this can only be realised if Zanu-PF keeps its eyes on the ball. Anyone seeking to divert the party from its pro-people agenda should be deemed an enemy of the people.

Zanu-PF needs to be wary of people who openly defy President Mugabe’s wise counsel not to attack each other on social media and in opposition tabloids.

Their remit, it seems, is to ensure that party remains seized with trivia as the clock furiously ticks down to 2018.

That Comrades, is how a party is destroyed from within!