BY PATRICIA SIBANDA
ZANU PF officials manning the party’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) stand in Bulawayo have claimed that the party has recorded a surge in membership numbers.
The party’s ZITF stand director Oliver Mandipaka yesterday told Southern Eye that new members had been joining the party at the trade fair. He, however, could not readily provide the figures.
“We cannot tell you the figures as of now because we are just putting things together, but what we can say is that the number of new members has been increasing and more people now want to be members of Zanu PF,” Mandipaka said.
“The five million votes that we have always talked about will become a reality in 2023,” he said while urging recruits to go to the Chitepo School of ideology.
“This is also an opportunity for all those people who want to be members of the Zanu PF party to come and apply for membership. We have got a card centre that is running that exercise. People can come at our stand, hall number 5, the home of the revolution to get their membership cards and thereafter they can visit the Chitepo School of Ideology so that their minds are decolonised,” Mandipaka said.
Turnout at this year’s ZITF has generally been low. A survey by Southern Eye revealed that no major political parties are exhibiting at the trade fair except Zanu PF whose stand carries campaign messages for its 2023 presidential candidate President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Political Actors Dialogue is also exhibiting.
Mandipaka said Zanu PF found it imperative to exhibit at the ZITF as it was a majority party with two-thirds in Parliament, adding that the fair offered the party an opportunity to campaign for the 2023 general elections.
“Since we have two-thirds majority in Parliament, it means we formulate policies as a party. The ZITF platform is an opportunity to say that President Mnangagwa should be voted into power in 2023 for another term,” he said.
“Various departments of the party that we have brought to the ZITF have stories to tell about the progress that has been made by the second republic in terms of road infrastructure, irrigation, agriculture, tourism and, in fact, all sectors of the economy.”
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