By Aldridge Dzvene | Positive Eye News
In a commanding address delivered at the ZANU PF Central Committee meeting in Harare on 3 July 2025, His Excellency the President and First Secretary of ZANU PF, Cde. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, cast a reflective yet forward-looking tone, calling for deeper introspection, firmer discipline, and unwavering loyalty as Zimbabwe moves into the second half of the year. The President’s speech resonated with both reverence for the past and urgency for the future, anchoring his message in the principles of unity, people-centred development, and Party integrity.
With humility and solemnity, the Head of State began by honouring the fallen heroes who have passed since the last meeting, national stalwarts such as Cde Victor Rungani, Cde Walter Basopo, Air Vice Marshal Winnie Mandeya, and Cde Luke Joboringo Mushore. Their service and sacrifice, the President reminded delegates, are the bedrock upon which the revolutionary Party’s legacy is built, and their memory should inspire today’s leaders to serve with the same selflessness.
Yet the address was far from ceremonial. It was a high-level diagnostic review of the state of the Party, the government, and the economy, with pointed remarks on ongoing projects, gaps in service delivery, and the strategic imperatives that must guide ZANU PF’s next phase.
President Mnangagwa placed strong emphasis on the verification and restructuring of Party structures, urging all organs of the Party to ensure the digital membership database is accurate and reflective of grassroots realities. This, he said, is foundational to building democratic credibility within the Party and sustaining the integrity of internal electoral processes. “ZANU PF is a constitutional Party,” he said emphatically, “founded on order, laid out procedures and discipline. MUZANU PF hakuna mazvake mazvake.”
The tone was equally assertive on governance. Referencing the disheartening conditions he recently observed in Harare’s public health facilities, the President minced no words, calling for urgent action across ministries, local authorities and communities to ensure basic services are delivered with efficiency and dignity. He applauded ongoing government interventions in the health, agriculture, and education sectors, highlighting visible gains under the Agriculture and Food System Transformation Strategy, and noting the growing global reputation of Zimbabwean youth in education and technical competence.
Importantly, he commended recent Party by-election victories in Harare, Matabeleland North and South, Masvingo, and Manicaland as validation of the Party’s enduring grassroots strength. However, he made it clear that ZANU PF must now double its efforts to reclaim more urban constituencies, guided by the philosophy of leaving no one and no place behind. In this regard, he reminded members of their duty to support local authorities in delivering tangible development at the ward level, where national transformation must begin.
One of the most striking dimensions of the address was the President’s reinforcement of cadre development and ideological education. He directed the Chitepo School of Ideology and the Commissariat Department to broaden their scope, bringing in Party affiliates and new members under structured political training. “ZANU PF ihomwe inokwana vana vese vemuZimbabwe,” he said, affirming the Party’s inclusive identity while warning against self-serving cliques and disunity.
The address also extended to youth empowerment. The President cited programmes such as the Presidential Youth Empowerment Facility as instruments to catalyse enterprise and reduce poverty. But he was categorical, youth empowerment must translate into productivity, not entitlement. Likewise, veterans of the liberation struggle, he said, remain a priority, and their welfare must not be neglected.
Crucially, the speech was not just about tasks and targets, it was about character. Loyalty, discipline, and unity were not framed as slogans but as ethical standards for leadership. “Hatidi gumbo mumba, gumbo panze,” he warned. “We must never guide our Party towards personal or clique interests.” Members of the Central Committee, he said, must lead by example, not just in words, but in conduct, integrity, and sacrifice.
Even amid praise for ongoing national programmes, Cde. Mnangagwa remained grounded in a reality-check: Zimbabwe’s development will not succeed if the Party is distracted by “sideshows and narratives that feed the agenda of opportunists.” The focus, he reiterated, must remain fixed on industrialisation, modernisation, and grassroots-driven transformation, household by household, district by district.
As ZANU PF prepares for its National People’s Conference in Manicaland in three months’ time, the President’s message was unambiguous, this is not a time for complacency, but for recommitment. With Vision 2030 now within tangible reach, the Central Committee must not lose sight of the Party’s foundational role: to serve, protect, and uplift the people of Zimbabwe.
In the President’s closing lines, the refrain of “Unity, Unity, Unity” echoed not merely as rhetoric but as a roadmap for political endurance and national progress. At a time when Africa and the world face new forms of ideological warfare, economic instability, and social fragmentation, Zimbabwe’s future, as envisioned by its President, rests on the strength of unity, the discipline of leadership, and the dignity of service.
Indeed, ZANU PF’s badge of honour, as the President aptly framed it, is not only to hold power, but to wield it with purpose, conscience, and compassion.
