RENOWNED playwright Cont Mhlanga says Zanu PF is not a bad party, but it will lose the upcoming elections because Zimbabweans are tired of its old guard.
REPORT BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Mhlanga, who was fired as an independent councillor in Lupane, urged Zanu PF to come up with a leadership renewal plan or risk going into oblivion, with its ageing leaders that he accused of running down the economy.
“Zanu PF is not a bad party after all,” he said. “That party suffers from a leadership renewal crisis.
“The old guard will cost that party during the upcoming elections because people are tired of them.”
Mhlanga said there were brilliant young people in Zanu PF, but they were often shut out by the old guard.
“There are brilliant young people in Zanu PF with brilliant ideas to uplift the economy. The problem is that those young people will always be waiting for the old guard to die to assume leadership positions,” he said.
“By the time they (youth) assume the leadership positions, they will also be old and tired with no fresh ideas to improve the lives of Zimbabweans and besides, circumstances would have changed and those ideas they had would be irrelevant.”
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Analysts blame the infighting and factionalism in Zanu PF to lack of a leadership renewal plan.
According to an analysis by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, the lack of a leadership renewal in Zanu PF stems from the party over-investing in “the President Robert Mugabe as the main asset”.
“Like all assets invested in, the law of diminishing returns will at some point, as it has now done in Zanu PF, kick in,” reads the report.
The report says this presented two dangers for Zanu PF, that it will perish together with its main asset, as it would not survive with Mugabe.
“Zanu PF will not survive because it is not equipped to survive beyond Mugabe, and if Zanu PF succession is not managed now, with Mugabe around, there will be utter chaos,” the report reads.
Mugabe has been at the helm of Zanu PF since 1977.
