Cde Ignatius Chombo
Nduduzo Tshuma Political Editor
ZANU-PF will be stricter next year and will not allow anyone to the national people’s Conference outside the designated number of delegates, party secretary for administration Dr Ignatius Chombo said at the weekend. Speaking after President Mugabe’s closing address at the Zanu-PF 16th National People’s Conference in Masvingo last Saturday, Dr Chombo said the party’s first secretary had said the coming of undesignated delegates should not be repeated.
During his address, President Mugabe said he had been advised by Dr Chombo during the course of the conference that the number of delegates had increased from an expected 7 000 to 9 000 people.
He said on Friday 8 000 delegates were recorded and on Saturday the closing day the number had increased to 9 000.
“That’s how popular Zanu-PF is, then should we chase away those that have come uninvited and tell them to go back where they came from? It shows they’ve commitment as the children of the revolutionary party, they are members of Zanu-PF. They came because of their commitment and we welcomed them,” said President Mugabe.
“But what is important is that there wasn’t any chaos. We all played our part without fighting, insulting each other as we thrived to ensure that the task at hand is effectively carried out.I give thanks to that, this is the Zanu-PF way. Pamberi nemi, pamberi nekubatana, phambili lokubambana. Ndatenda, ndatenda, ndatenda, ndatenda rusingaperi.”
After President Mugabe’s speech, Dr Chombo told the delegates that the President had only allowed that to happen at this year’s conference only.
“The President said we will allow this for this year only but we will not allow the same next year. We will stick to the numbers,” said Dr Chombo.
In an interview on the eve of the official opening of the conference last Thursday, Dr Chombo had warned that gate crashers were going to be identified and chucked out of the conference.The conference was held under the theme, “Moving with Zim-Asset in Peace and Unity.”