via $300m and no results – the futility of the Zanu summit | The Zimbabwean 11.12.13 by Tawanda Majoni
Zanu (PF)’s current fundraising frenzy for the 2013 annual conference is a loud signal that the party has warped priorities. I hear that the party was gunning for a whopping $300m to hold the yearly ritual in Chinhoyi, and has been busy with scintillating jingles calling on all and sundry to give the money it says it needs for the conference.
I gasp at the hard fact that Zanu (PF) has invested so much time and effort in raising this kind of money, considering that the event that it’s treating like Christmas is full of sound and fury, with no tangible results, year in and year out.
I wonder if the party ever audits its resolutions at the conferences and congresses it has held over the decades. If it did, it would not continue huffing about ceremonies that start crumbling even before delegates leave the venue.
Take the 2012 Gweru conference, for instance. A myriad of resolutions made, but hardly any recommendation has been actioned.
For the record, this is the basic wishlist that the party made one year ago: Fighting corruption in the police force; 50-50 gender representation in all decision-making institutions; empowerment projects for women and youths; allocating illegal miners claims and capitalising their projects; rebuilding the national cattle herd; encouraging greater foreign direct investment; spearheading power generation; restoring full service delivery after the 2013 elections (that it had wanted to be held in January, by the way); massive road construction; boosting community share ownership trust; boosting the economy, and empowering rural women.
If there is anyone out there who can tell me that the party has scored in any of the areas above, may that person come forward, but I know it would be difficult even for the most thick-skinned spin doctor in the party to put his or head on the block regarding this.
For instance, Zanu (PF) hardly had a third of female candidates in the last elections, yet it had resolved to strike a 50-50 balance in national institutions.
Instead of settling on effective ways to boost FDI, the party’s new government is always harping about the Chinese and the Indians, and is busy shooing away serious suitors by waving the indigenisation card.
Darkness is increasing in our homes, so talk about increased power generation is vacuous. Again, the Zimbabwe Republic Police is still to be sanitised, judging by the level of corruption that still bedevils the organisation. So, why seek to blow a ripe $300m on another empty ritual, especially when history demonstrates amply that nothing tangible comes out of it?
Frankly, even if Zanu (PF) planned to use only $100,000, I was going to get worried, but the ceremony does not justify it.
As we are speaking, Patrick Chinamasa is running around like a clueless turkey and cannot say anything sensible about the budget, yet his party is busy mobilising a fortune for an empty event.
Imagine what $300m would do for ordinary Zimbabweans who are struggling to raise capital for modest livelihood projects. A screaming lot!
Let’s say Zanu (PF) had seen sense in fundraising to empower the people with that money, and had divided it among the thousands of hungry rural
Zimbabweans to start collective income-generating projects. That surely was going to change many lives.
This $300m would be blown over one or two days, with a substantial amount, as we have seen in the past, finding its way into thieving individuals’ pockets. Five or so beasts bought with the money would go to someone’s butchery and a good number of hapless delegates would still go hungry. So much ado about nothing, wouldn’t you say? All that creativity that the party has displayed as it advertised to raise funds should surely be used to find ways of fixing the economy. Things are at a standstill in Zimbabwe, and there is no clue where we are headed. – If you’d like to comment on this, please contact majonitt@gmail.com
COMMENTS
Spot on Tawanda!Talk about getting your priorities right.I have never seen such a selfish bunch of people as Zanu pf.Good lord,who do these criminals represent?
Shame on you Mugabe.
Now go and choke on your millions!
Lots of hot air from zanu back sides
If they can raise the $300 million for the just 1 non profitable event, I wonder why they cannot do it twice and raise the required $700 million required for Zisco. Presently we are all waiting for the Indians to buy the steel maker yet we can raise our own money. If they do it a good 6 times we will be able to raise money for our own Platinum refinery. Therefore if they can raise this kind of money in 1 year then Zisco can be operational within 2 years. If they do it again for another 2 years our energy deficit will be reduced by more than half. Another 6 years a platinum refinery. Therefore within the next 10 years with such kind of fundraising so much can be done to improve our economy.
However as I have said before the ZPF system only knows how to rule but have no clue on how to manage. In this age we should be electing leaders who know how to manage more than anything else.
As always zanu pf excuses amongst others are tendai biti was stingy with the national purse. Hence non performance.
That conference is a joke. Its sole purpose is to create a platform for Mugabe and his croonies to try and legitimize their illegitimate leadership. People are sick and tired of this old bag of a dictator. They go to that conference only for the free feast of buffet and free flow of bottomless beer. And by the way, over and above that, they get free transport to and from the venue as well as 100 US Dollars per delegate. God please help Zimbabweans and free them from the grip of the evil dictator called Mugabe and his croonies. Taneta mwari kugara kunyika dzevamwe sevatorwa isu tiinayo nyika yedu yechipikirwa
Breaking news!!!!!
Summit cancelled.All raised funds to be channelled into the economy
ICHOOOO
Tawanda ndizvo
what congress when we have no salaries 14 months at nrz? Nw xmas is close and have nothing to give our depressed parents home. Should anyone enjoy this, for what?
Strange, no-one complained about these extravaganzas during the ’80’s??
Oh of course not, because mugabe was only exterminating the Ndebele and beating
and threatening the whites………..the shona were still favoured and actually supported the violence perpetrated
against their fellow citizens!!
Seems to me that you are reaping what you sewed so ‘suck it up’!!