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We publish here the full text of President Mugabe’s address to the zanu-pf Central Committee yesterday.

Vice President Mnangagwa, President of party CFC secretary, vice president Cde Phelekezela Mphoko, the secretary for Administration Cde Ignatius Chombo, Members of the Politburo, members of the Central Committee, ladies and gentlemen Cdes and friends. May I warmly welcome you to this hundred and first, 101 Central Committee meeting which is the first in the year 2016.

And which meeting we are holding three months after the 15th National People’s Conference as per our constitution which regulates programmes in terms of the number of times in which we meet here.

The Central Committee is supposed to meet in every three months quarterly.

That gives us at least four meetings a year, but we can have extraordinary meetings in addition.

But every three months we meet ordinarily to review the progress that we are making, the progress that our projects, programmes are making and whether the resolutions which were passed at the last meeting of the national people’s conference are now finding the expression.

Well at our meetings we are also able to asses that progress and then we proceed to re align and re-strategise refocus and reinvigorate our party.

But as we meet today, I wonder whether the state of our party is one we regard as solid, united, forward looking and aggressively moving forward in terms of covering the area I have made reference to.

But what is most important is whether our teams win as we look ourselves within the teams to which we belong.

Whether these teams are well united whether they are harmoniously interacting or not.

On the Victoria Falls people’s conference we decided on ways to redirect, revive and reactivate our party.

The activities to revive the party were to start from the grass roots or branches or districts then the province but ensuring branch level deserves to village committees to exists and do follow procedures of meeting regularly.

Then going up the branch, how often should it meet constitutionally, is it meeting in accordance with the constitution.

We discovered last year that there was just a programme of complying with the constitution and this was on the side of the district level.

This saw at the provincial level and we discovered that the provinces were not supervising their bodies.

But of course, the supervisor’s bodies, you have to ensure structurally, that they are in place.

That they are properly instituted themselves in physical terms.

Well, let us ensure that this year we perfect whatever we try to do lastly. But it is important that we do so as quickly as possible, in other words start doing so. Because we are not only in competition with others but we would want to see at the end of the day, end of the year that what we set ourselves in the party we should become or has become impressive government as ZIM-ASSET is actually in full swing and yielding results.

But unity in the party has always been one of the key issues. And it was a key issue and dominated our conference last year. We made reference to it and the need for it, for that unity.

We found that whereas we were working on programs in the belief that we are united others were planning perhaps to do their own thing.

The succession issue which led to the gamatox group taking its departure and now we hear that they have formed their own party called The People First.

But as they left apparently as they say nature has its own way of filling in the gaps.

It can be seen also that in politics; politics has its own way of filling its own gaps.

We have discovered that we are once again at cross purposes.

Some people are working on the succession issue. Where it will be in the event that the president goes.

And that there are factions, factions that accuse each other and found a rival boxing ground which is that of opposition members.

That’s where the fighting takes place. This said against someone. That someone also sometimes in defence but sometimes almost on his own offensive way makes a critical statement damaging the other side.

It’s not just the newspapers, the opposition papers that constitute the fighting ground, it’s also the Internet I understand.

The Internet where I understand we get all kinds of abuses on the party, of individuals, all of us who hold positions, or attacks on one occasion or another. And there are no holds at all then. The language is primitive, abusive and quite rotten, and people take cover because the Internet nets shields them. Some quite oftenly they speak quite openly any regular way of ours what I don’t know is whether that way we can achieve true unity we may have physical togetherness as we are now bodies together but the minds now quite in contest with each other.

There is the influence we have over the youths and over others maybe women so one asks we the zanu-pf where are we going?

Do we have trust in each other?

Mistrusting each other or was trust eroded somehow.

Well let’s say I said some time ago an exercise of introspection looking inwardly at ourselves and examining whether we are getting this criticism or not.

But what is very clear is that we do not trust each other lots of back-biting each other organising against each other and wishing the downfall of each other.

We wonder whether we can change a new leaf are we supposed to appeal to you the central committee to tangle over a new leaf and be born again so you can redirect your energy towards revamping and injecting new life into the party.

New life into the party and saving ourselves as models for the youth.

Youths should be united, focused and policy driven. Surely the leadership of the party should provide that element of unity provide that historical understanding that enable us to be one what we are as an example that our youths should follow.

Look at what we are now compare what we are now with what we used to be especially during the times of the struggle even as we stood apart, Zanu and Zapu, sometimes we should realize that apartness did not prevent us from being united in terms of policy in terms of forward looking we see a struggle against the common enemy and that is what led us to form the Patriotic Front, 1976.

Zvino tikada kuputsa zvose izvozvo tichinakidzwa to those who want to see division . Those who want to benefit from division. You are destroying the party.

If gold, we are regarded as a gold remusangano. If gold rusts varipazasi nevamwewo will be regarded as an island what will they do. I am quoting naturally Chosa, if Gold rusts what will iron do .It draws such a big exemplary for what do you expect the followers to do. Well this is an exercise where we don’t expect to be driven by external forces and this is an area where we drive our selves. Do your act of introspection, am I doing the right thing in the party or am I not .Am I looking at the party in a selfish way if I am I should stop it.

The party says and that’s the party’s policy that’s how we have fought quorum and how our people went to war and died there are people who lived it was a fight for the whole nation and not for one self but for all of us in the country that drove us to war against the settlers and all the countries including South Africa that made real sacrifices real offering to die for the nation for us for our country.

Zimbabwe had the largest death toll.

With time which has passed which is passing perhaps we don’t realise how we had been injured as a nation through the bombings that have happened that happened in camps were because the ANC didn’t take to the struggle with a serious way as we did in terms of numbers .They were out I am saying out in the camps with also the madhala, the kids in those camps, refugee camps later on the military bases and it was the refugee camps that we lost thousands and thousands of people. Just imagine one camp with possibly a thousand or two thousand inmates being bombed from above unexpectedly and the death toll amounts to seven hundred, eight hundred that’s one camp and this is repeatedly and tomorrow ////

And we are not talking about those who died from the bullets, no, just from the bombings. Freedom camps Chimoyo, Nyadzonya, Tete the enemy was following us even kunaana Botswana, the houses in which they knew, some our comrades were butchered and that was the toll outside. It was also the toll inside. Kuma keeps. Those who were //// from inside here, never came back.

Hatina kutora nyaya hombe iyi, kuti titi ma British tinoda compensation for those losses.

But there were heavy on us very heavy. And so that’s why we take our independence very seriously.

And our policies of indigenization and empowerment in their in exclusive way. We take it seriously.

This is how we were treated. And those who treated us so badly so inhumanly, so cruelly, brutally.

You know some gone to South Africa and come back smiling appearing to be very polite now.

They shed blood, lots of our blood. Kuti ukazvifunga, you don’t want to see a white skin. Well that’s it but then kuti this is what happened to us. This is the sacrifice our people made. That sacrifice should not go and in////, it means we need to be true to our own people, to our own people as a people without distinction, /// save those of us/// our people truly and honestly.

That’s why our programmes must unfold, and unfold in service to our people, answer issues which have to do with their lives, social, are there really better lives to come, they have better housing, do they have something they rely on, piece of land to service them for the rest of their lives. From property, property in land, property in houses, property in business terms. So when we see we say, to the outside world we have a policy of indigenization and empowerment and they react by saying aaah you are driving away investment. We should not worry. We know what we have suffered and we know what we should do, not to suffer again or to benefit those who made us suffer in this bloody way. As we came yesterday in the meeting those 10 000 comrades looking at them many of them are old now, looking beyond 60s and 50s and so on. There were many missing ones they died. Died early why. Vana Kadungure, they were not old enough .They should now have been probably in their 60s. the top of this struggle conditions harsh conditions in the bush then we of course shot many of us apart from the bombs and the fights, well survivors that we are the responsibility to fold hands to ensure that society we create is a society that is much better and rewarding to our nation others can say what they want but our nation comes first. ////suffering amongst our people, because we suffered enough.

Even those who remained across the country were harassed, put in camps like goats. Supervised, put together ////. We say to them well, we can’t be //// we get /// we say also we don’t tolerate any disobedience and compliance of our system. The land shall be ours.

So as we superintend the development that is based on land reform, land resettlement. It is treasonable for us to cheat and say aaa we accommodate varungu. We are not going to set them down bombs in the manner in which they did.

We can’t be expected to be too open minded to them. Their kith and kin even. That is why we decided in our look East policy to our friends of ours who yesterday helped us in our fight and so take care .Ladies and gentlemen comrades and friends whilst we befriend these whites, we should not once again open the way to their taking control of aspects of our industry. We are still worried about controls they have ku, the safari. It’s not well supervised ee tinovaziva ve tourism vanoti a a lets not disturb that’s why they do their own planning and cheating sucking our wealth. It’s not just the safaris they do ikoko uko, lots of smuggling, tuma air strips not sufficiently adequately supplied with raiders that can supply information. Some of the activities they do with South Africa is supporting in silence, fly small aircraft, carry away stakes of diamonds, gold, diamonds even in the past on Anglo American and that might continue. They are ducking for platinum, do we allow them to get away with that nonsense so they can continue to dig our platinum and be the major owners of the resource. We get it just what they decide to give us. Right, I would want also to assign members of the central committee, we are many of us here, most of us are in cabinet, parliament to ensure that our programs and projects based on Zim-Asset are thriving. We want to ensure that roads are done, the railways are done, that their routes are open to us, the transportation system serving us is flowing // .The extracted recourses, extracted industries, gold agriculture, horticulture mining , need to be assisted with equipment. Farmers with land they cannot teal should be prevailed upon and remain with just that land they are able to teal let the country access land should be given to others. Water conservation is very important; our season is coming to an end. The rains that were falling in as heavy as they have done before but they tended to be light, heavy towards the end.

Some of our dams have//// to the extent of being full, with others in very dry places where the rains were /// But let that water which is taped be used as kind of factor, protection ///// irrigation that happens to be our program but people must cooperate and must be organized well. They are no individuals. They are encouraged to cooperate /// Ngatishandeyi nemasimba takabva mukuona mamwe mashini ku Home Affairs uko wokuita ma passports///// service of them together //// It’s that kind of technology we need right across in other areas of industries for value addition. And that some of you who have not yet seen our passports and sure //// visit this plant to see how technology ///. Work that would take us days and days to do it’s done a matter off few hours.

Would want to say this has been a bad year and our system of assistance to the public. So in terms of hunger is in full game. So from the party level I hope we are ensuring that system will work as it ///// and others, ensure that also areas .constituencies that people are not starving that food which is being distributed is reaching people and ensure that it’s not just a //// their being served but it’s also a matter of being put in a position to prepare themselves for the next season and next was //////

I want to thank those of you who worked with war veterans. you should have seen the discipline they had yesterday vagere pasi ku Sports Centre. And listening so intently to our speeches. But all previously, my previous interacting with them having been divided into clusters, groups to discuss the themes of this and that went well. There was no noise. There were no abuses at all. They came. They wanted to be informed about the help they deserve. Fees, school fees, welfare, help fees to hospital and even funding for their funerals ///// of our independence. ////

I was actual moved just by the fact of discipline. I did talk about the need of indiscipline, more so about ///// we don’t seem to know//// want to turn it into a political //// which it is not meant to do, but we ignore that one completely. We just wanted as war veterans to come and meet me and as War veterans they came and not as individual capacities and I promised them that I would be meeting the///. And I know that /// Very far. But we created deliberately the ministry that takes care of their welfare, so that all their welfare needs can be channeled now to that ministry. But ku defence of course kwa Sekeramayi and secretary//// so they work together and there should now be given that ministry /// but also have also some computers kuma provinces so that they can monitor easily `the situation. So we computerized the system. We have to know each and every one of them the state in which she or he is. Then the numbers as it stands and when we call for a meeting like the one we had last night. It’s much easier than the situation like nana Hunzvi. Vakangobvura kudhara vana Hunzvi ne welfare yema war veterans ne organization yavo. Nharo and kuramba zvaka itigweyi under defence. Zvaitikanganisa izvozvo. Zvino zvamunoramba kuva under defence kuriko kwamakabva. Tokupayi rubatsiro in which way? But now we have a ministry and we are going to develop that ministry very much, and will rely upon that to give us information, ne situation yema war veterans. Nhamo dzavo tinenge tichidziziva. But that also there is need for us kuti titi ma war veterans vakati vanoda to participate in mining. Fine as war veterans we said they can organized themselves. Organize companies in which we can say these companies are/// Companies whether its mining, of which can be mining especially in gold I would encourage mining gold because its more profitable and mining chrome. We have had comrades in little groups vachichera chrome pama Great Dyke. It has been a pity. It’s a pity that they didn’t have real tools. You can’t mine chrome nema picks and shovels, no. But vanenge vachida kuita mining ikoko that’s alright. But gold has quality and the market is there already. The prices are there whereas others don’t readily have market and are difficult to market except by way of huge quantity. Huge quantities to market abroad. Chrome and huge quantities of chrome for you to get a bit of money. Now takanga tati we don’t want our chrome to be marketed that way. A road went out, even before our struggle America used to mine kunana Shurugwi kuya uku … but waiti ukaenda ikoko aiona zvitima ikoko zvizere matutu a chrome as huge stones //// no///but there must be one ///

We have said for now in order to easy cash //// cash wise,….so ma comrades participating in that . But certainly we shall be doing something////..equipment for Agriculture and that has already been assigned to as equipment to the war veterans so well the numbers are wangling. They are not just 10 thousand. The registrar which we have they say its in the region of 35, 36, 37 thousands in the country as a whole which is distributed to other parts of the provinces.

So the province the provincial structure ye party yedu they can work together that way. Try to establish. Takati toda Kuita committee yedu trying to work out system yatingaita yokuvabatsira nayo. We can get gold kuma claims akati akati and that gold is sold and the money also goes into the fund yema war veterans.

Tongomirira mari yawanikwa from the taxes and so on and nava Chinamasa finance yobva yaenda kubudget. Moziva budget kana mukapiwa $10 thousand, it does not mean much kune administration/// System ///Material way.

Well that’s good you have come and good you are fine. Keep your healthy. See doctors often. Don’t go to doctors when you are about to die, no. have the routines dzekuti every 6 months you go to a doctor. You get checked kwete kuti aaa hapana chandiri kunzva. Hapana chauri kunzva, muviri unenge unezvauri kunzva. So go and get checked everything, all parts of the body heart, lungs the brain even.//// Yakabva nep/////… zvatiri kudya izvi zvino todyeyi. Toenda musango, maroro. Eeeeh kudya miti yoga yoga…///.ourselves…. Food stuffs… dzimwe dzacho idzi they are very good to the body, but isu tinoda sadza nenyama.. Tigoda mazinhindi akadai so … yaah …… dzimwe dzinogochwa kunonzi Kwa Meriki. Vamwe ….