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Gibson Nyikadzino Herald Correspondent

There are footprints of scientific and technical approaches the governing Zanu PF party has adopted since the ascension of President Mnangagwa at the helm of the party in November 2017. Party mobilisation strategies have gone a notch up and should not be disrupted, but complemented.

The incorporation of the youth in the party’s departments, delegating them administrative power, is a metamorphosis of the youth wing so that it appreciates how the party works, functions and runs.

New programmes by the party have also endeared it to many in the opposition, who in turn were attracted by tolerance that Zanu PF has become since November 2017 and crossed the political floor to Zanu PF’s big, accommodating tent.

However, some party cadres have failed to recalibrate and transform their thoughts so they speak to the current.

To comprehend his speech at the 362nd Ordinary Session of the Politburo on Wednesday, it has to be understood that President Mnangagwa was reminding members that the mentality of the old order has no place and life in the contemporary.

His call that party leaders should work and “inject a new lease of life into party strategies, programmes and activities” meant party leaders and members should all work hard around the objectives to which the party was found on.

“There can be no spectators in the conduct of Party affairs. It is unacceptable that those given positions of responsibility simply sit on their portfolios with little to show. Non delivery of results will attract consequences,” President Mnangagwa said.

The Youth League last month successfully held its 7th National Youth League Conference. Generally, the youth (at times) may act contra-reflective to the principles of the party. That is the curse of youthful exuberance. In one extreme, the youth may think they own the party while in another they might want to create fiefdoms.

Indeed so, President Mnangagwa said the “Youth League must be assisted, together with their affiliates, to quickly re-align and to be in sync” with the objectives of the party that goes with “musangano kuma cell” mantra.

Those in the Women’s League, the War Veteran’s League and the Main Wing also have a responsibility to “nurture and help groom these young cadres into an effective youth vanguard”.

Party institutions like the Chitepo School of Ideology have a role to play in shaping and guiding the members on the core values of the party to keep the youths with vigour and the nationalist fervour connected to the country’s umbilical cord that is in the Second Chimurenga.

“Hatidi chi ‘shefu-shefu’ mentality, among and indeed across the youth all structures of the Party. We are all servants of the people. This is the culture that should be entrenched within the Party,” added the President

No individual can claim ownership of the people’s party. Those who have attempted to personalise the party in the past, ended up reaping the misfortunes that accompanied their misdeeds.

It was in June 2015 when President Mnangagwa said: “Everybody can go into Zanu PF’s pocket. But no one can put Zanu PF in his or her pocket. Zanu PF is a huge pocket in which we all fit. But if you think that Zanu PF belongs to you as an individual, you will be scorched.”

Also, Zimbabwe is at war. Not only an ideological war, but one that has become hybrid. Economic sabotage, entrenched corruption, informational chaos and propaganda are the instruments that have been used to smear Zimbabwe by proxies of the enemy and also those that want to put the party into disrepute.

The only way to win the war is for both party and Government information departments to continue talking to the people and explaining to and share pragmatic solutions and strategies to overcome and shame the enemies within and without.

In the history of war, some parties lost not because they were poorly equipped or lacked strategy, but because indiscipline among leaders of their battalions issued contradictory statements that departed from what had been agreed at the table of strategy. By so doing, confusion erupted!

To avoid such, President Mnangagwa warned: “Personal views and opinions must never be smuggled to assume the status of being Party policy. There is no room for mixed messaging within our Party. All attempts to split or undermine our unity, social harmony and stability should be resolutely opposed by the rank and file of our Party.”

The focus is on “unity, peace, development”, nothing more, nothing less.

The people belong to Zanu PF and Zanu PF belongs to the people, that is all President Mnangagwa was saying. Those working for the party in the New Dispensation have renewed thoughts and are disciplined forces.

“Let me further hasten to say that constitutionalism, unity, peace, harmony and development remain our absolute compass, now and going into the future. Irregularities and political chicanery across party structures must be decisively dealt with and expunged from the party,” President Mnangagwa said in January.