Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
Zanu-PF has started training its members revolutionary ethos under the auspices of the Chitepo Ideological College and no party cadre will represent Zanu-PF in national elections without passing through the college. Zanu-PF House of Assembly representatives are expected to attend the three-month course beginning next month. President Mugabe is expected to launch the workshops.
Speaking to the media after the party caucus in Harare on Wednesday, Zanu-PF Chief Whip Cde Lovemore Matuke said the workshops were meant to conscientise party cadres with revolutionary values. This was after realisation that some legislators were ignorant of the party’s values.
He said the meeting was mainly introductory remarks from facilitators drawn from the security forces and other revolutionaries. “It was an issue about the Chitepo Ideological College where we want all the MPs to be on the same footing in terms of values of our independence, values of the liberation struggle and other issues about our Constitution,” said Cde Matuke.
“Chitepo Ideological College is starting with Members of Parliament, but will cascade down to every section and structure of our party countrywide. In 2018, no candidate will contest on the Zanu-PF ticket without going through the Chitepo Ideological College.”
Cde Matuke said MPs would be attending the workshops every Wednesday until the end of September when they will graduate after successfully completing the course. He said after that, the workshops will be decentralised to provinces, districts to cell level to ensure that every party member was correctly oriented.
Wednesday’s workshop was attended by Zanu-PF national commissar, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere and several other MPs. “The President will launch the workshops in due course. Today was just a summary introduction of the whole course. But as from next Wednesday we will be going through all the chapters of the course until we finish
“At the moment we realised that we have a problem with some people who are elected into Parliament under the Zanu-PF ticket, but do not understand the values of the party. We have had some situations where some MPs from the party support things that are contrary to party values when they are in Parliament which makes these workshops very important because this way our MPs will be conscientised about what it means to be Zanu-PF and what is expected of them, among them defending the country’s economic and political interests. So every party official from cell to the Politburo will go through the Chitepo Ideology School,” said Cde Matuke.
Zanu-PF First Secretary and President Mugabe has been consistently calling for the establishment of the Chitepo Ideological College that was mooted soon after the country gained independence in 1980.
War veterans, at their meeting with President Mugabe in April, also said there was need to immediately operationalise the Chitepo Ideological College without necessary waiting for the construction of a structure.
They said there was deterioration of patriotism and understanding of the Zanu-PF ideology within its structures particularly by those who did not participate in the liberation struggle.