The DCCs are
considered highly strategic in Zanu PF because leaders derive power from them.
They consist of
elected members from the cells and branches, who represent the main wing, the
women’s league and the youth league.
The district
consists of 10 branches whose delegates elect the district executive committee
once every two years.
In the past,
fierce power struggles among Zanu PF leaders have resulted in repeated
dissolution of DCCs.
Sources within
the ruling party told NewsDay recently that the term of the current DCCs had
long expired.
They claimed
that, under the leadership of Muchinguri, the party failed to meet some of its
constitutional obligations.
“Our national
chairperson has failed to organise for the party,” a politburo member said. “We
have no proper structures as we speak, but what is more of concern is that we
have failed to conduct DCC elections after the term of the current DCCs
expired.”
Another party
member said: “We now have a retarded leadership. We can’t continue with some
members who have run out of ideas to run the party... the chairperson is busy
creating parallel structures because she is believed to harbour presidential
ambitions.”
Zanu PF
director of information Farai Marapira, however, said the party leadership was
united and seized with the cell verification exercise.
“Since 1963, we
have met our constitutional obligations, so there is no panic in our leadership
whatsoever,,” Marapira said.
“The party is
busy with its cell verification and structuring. We are aware that this is the
hand of the enemy who is trying to divide our party, but they have failed.”
Observers said
the chaos in the Zanu PF DCCs exposed deep-rooted factionalism in the ruling
party.
In 2012, the
late former President Robert Mugabe banned DCCs after factions aligned to the
current President, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his then bitter rival, Joice Mujuru,
were locked in intense fights that caused acute divisions in Zanu PF.
The reason for
their disbandment was that the DCCs were fomenting factionalism and divisions
in the ruling party.
Mnangagwa
revived the DCCs in 2020.
DCCs have
direct influence on who is elected to the provincial coordinating committees,
the central committee, the national constitutive assembly, as well as the
politburo, the party’s supreme decision-making body.
DCC members are
eligible to attend the party’s congress as delegates with voting rights and
this makes them a key factor in the succession dynamics of the party. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment