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Wallace Ruzvidzo

Herald Reporter

Zanu PF remains confident of reaching the five million membership mark by 2023, despite the Covid-19 pandemic that has slowed down the movement of some of its programmes.

The ruling party’s national Political Commissar, Cde Victor Matemadanda, told The Herald yesterday that they have not suspended party structures re-organisation, although they had been hampered by the national lockdown.

“We are still feeling very positive that we will make the five million membership target by 2023,” he said. “We have not stopped working out cell structures and mobilising and capacitating our people. The party never stopped carrying out programmes, we are doing them at a lower scale.”

Cde Matemadanda said it was critical for mobilisation to start from the grass roots level, as the party moved to growing its membership.

He said more activity was happening at village level where groups of not more than 50 people were allowed to gather while practicing social distancing.

The move to increase the party’s membership to five million was one of the party’s resolutions at its Annual National People’s Conference held in December last year.

Cde Matemadanda said the party was engaged in projects to help grow the economy, in line with President Mnangagwa’s call for increased productivity this year.

“We are focusing on productivity, this is a year of productivity,” he said. “For as long as we do not turn ourselves from consumers to producers, nothing will change.”

Cde Matemadanda said the party was encouraging people to take-up conservation agriculture to guarantee self-sufficiency and commercialise smallholder agriculture.