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Herald Reporter
ONLY vaccinated delegates will attend this year’s Zanu PF 19th Annual People’s Conference to be held in Bindura, Mashonaland Central next month as the party leaves nothing to chance against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

This is despite the fact that the conference will be held in a virtual format where delegates will congregate in the country’s 10 provinces.

Addressing the media on Monday, Zanu PF acting spokesperson Mike Bimha said the party’s national chair Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, who chairs the national committee on conference preparations, gave a report on the state of preparedness of the party to host the conference.

After Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri’s presentation, the Politburo endorsed the recommendations to reduce the number of delegates attending both the national conference as well as delegates gathered at the provincial virtual centres.

“It also endorsed the need to follow the Covid-19 regulations and protocols. This implies that all delegates at each provincial centre must have been vaccinated and tested. They must be able to observe social distancing,” said Dr Bimha.

Leading by example, the ruling party called on its members to continue observing Covid-19 protocols to reduce transmission.

The conference will be held in a format that will see Politburo and central committee members meeting at the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) in Mashonaland Central provinces while across the country, party senior leaders will follow events from designated centres in each province with the provincial leadership of Mashonaland Central, the host province, congregating at BUSE town campus.

This is in line with Covid-19 protocols that include decongesting public places while the conference will be the first in two years after last year’s edition was postponed because of the ravaging and fast-spreading pandemic.

Recently, a technical committee led by the revolutionary party director for administration Cde Dickson Dzora expressed satisfaction with preparations for the annual indaba of the ruling party.

“The Transitional Stabilisation Programme will come under the spotlight during the conference while the introduction of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) will also be discussed.

“As a party, which is people-centred and with people-centred policies, we need to take stock of promises which were made in 2018, the resolutions made in Esigodini and Goromonzi and the economic transformation programme.

“We need to see where we are in terms of party structures, state of the party and the economy. A lot has happened in the past two and half years, we have transformed this economy as we move towards vision 2030.

“We will talk about milestones achieved and organise ourselves to romp to victory in 2023.

“We will continue to implement the economic transformation which will uplift the standard of living of our people.”

“The conference will give us an opportunity to reflect on the state of the party and state of the economy. During his inauguration President Mnangagwa said the economy must take a front seat while politics take the back seat,” said Cde Dzora.