ZANU PF delegates converge on Harare for party congress

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 December 2009

5,000 delegates from ZANU PF’s ten provinces were on Wednesday heading to Harare to attend their party congress which is held every five years.

The congress will once again rubber-stamp Robert Mugabe as the leader of the party for the next five years without opening up debate on the floor. Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us the delegates were also expected to endorse the nominations of the party’s new second vice president John Nkomo and the new chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo.

Nkomo, the current chairman will succeed the late Joseph Msika who died in August this year. Under the country’s laws, the two vice presidents of the ZANU PF party automatically become the vice presidents of Zimbabwe. It’s an arrangement that was brought about by the 1987 unity accord signed by Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the former PF ZAPU, led by the late vice president Joshua Nkomo.

Muchemwa said the congress comes at a time when infighting in the party has reportedly been worsening since the party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence to Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC during last year’s elections.

Muchemwa said while some delegates were pushing for Mugabe to be the party’s life president others wanted a change of leadership at the top if the party was to stand any chance at the next general elections.

Others want him to appoint a successor to take over when he retires. But Mugabe has flatly refused to discuss his retirement plans and he will undoubtedly contest the next presidential poll which is expected in the next two years.

But the issue of selecting or discussing Mugabe’s successor has threatened to split the former ruling party, amid behind-the-scenes jostling by party heavyweights for the top post.

Two factions, one led by Emmerson Mnangagwa the Defence Minister and the other one led by former army commander retired general Solomon Mujuru, have been at loggerheads for a longtime over who should succeed Mugabe as leader of ZANU PF and head of state.

As it stands they’ll be waiting another 5 years and the leader of ZANU PF will be 90 years old.