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Signed and Sealed . . . The Unity Accord signed by President Mugabe and the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo on December 22, 1987, is one of the enduring legacies of Father Zimbabwe

Naison Ndlovu Special Correspondent
IT is a matter of the public record that towards the end of last August I made a public statement to the effect that, after initially indicating that I had no interest in the post of one of the two Vice Presidents and Second Secretaries of Zanu-PF, I had chosen to undertake broad-based consultations within the party to enable me to decide whether or not to contest forthe post in view of our party’s forthcoming elective Congress scheduled for December.

Although some sections of the media have since then taken this position to mean that I’m a candidate for the post of Vice President, the truth is that this interpretation has been entirely a media invention with no basis in fact, as I have not until now announced the outcome of my consultations one way or the other.

In this connection, I believe the media has done itself and the public a disservice by jumping the gun and running ahead of itself.
Otherwise I am pleased to advise that, after a careful and wide-ranging process of consultations over the last eight or so weeks, I have decided not to be part of the contest for the post of Vice President and Second Secretary of zanu-PF reserved for the former PF-Zapu.

In taking this final position, I fully agree with the sentiment recently expressed by the First Lady, and our party’s incoming Secretary for Women’s Affairs, Amai Grace Mugabe that the two posts of Vice Presidents and Second Secretaries of zanu-PF are not meant to be contested for as products and expressions of the historic 1987 Unity accord.

Right from the beginning, my interest was not to contest against anyone for the post in question but to ensure that the right and correct procedures are followed in filling the two vacancies including the post of National Chairman.

For the record, it is a fact the Unity Accord requires that the two Vice Presidents and Second Secretaries of zanu-PF be appointed by the President and First Secretary of the party.
The Unity accord did not provide for, or foresee, a contest as part of the appointment of the party’s two Vice Presidents not least because a contest by definition is the opposite of unity in that it tends to be divisive and invariably leads to competing centres of power which undermine unity.

Furthermore, and although there’s a lot of confusion about the role and context of seniority in the appointment or selection of the national leadership of the party, I believe that we have not as a country reached a stage in our political development where we should allow careless and dangerous talk to undermine the importance of considering seniority in the former PF-Zapu as an important part of the criteria of selecting one of the two Vice Presidents in accordance with the Unity accord.

While there is no doubt that merit is very important, it should be remembered that it is more of a bureaucratic or technical quality than a political one and that in any event the meaning of merit in a political situation is very different from its bureaucratic or technical context.

It is an insult for anyone to suggest that people like me rose to seniority in the former PF-Zapu without merit or that the seniority that we talk about and insist upon does not include merit. More fundamentally, it is important for all of us to understand that the kind of merit that counts the most in political leadership is about having substantive wisdom.
It is my considered view that wisdom has become a scarce commodity in our national politics today.

Yet wisdom is the one heritage we cherish from Father Zimbabwe Dr Joshua Nkomo and our party’s President and First Secretary Cde Robert Mugabe.
While I’m today ruling myself out of any contest for one of the two posts of Vice Presidents and Second Secretaries of zanu-PF, I want to state in the strongest possible terms that I shall remain seized with and focussed on ensuring that wisdom prevails and that the right procedures are followed in maintaining both the letter and spirit of the Unity Accord in filling the vacancies of the two posts in question. As such, I will do everything in my power and ability to assist our President and First Secretary, Cde Mugabe, to ensure that our party is well served not just today but also well into the foreseeable future.

This is the least I can do as a senior member of the party who believes that the party’s unity and indeed Zimbabwe’s national unity are not just bureaucratic issues but very serious matters whose attainment is not possible without wisdom.

I remain confident that, guided by the letter and spirit of the Unity Accord and through the much needed consultations, we will in the end make the right choices not only for the two posts of Vice Presidents but also for the post of National Chairman.

Cde N. K. Ndlovu is a Committee Member, zanu-PF Politburo.