THE Zanu PF 14th annual national people’s conference came to an end on Saturday and a perusal of its resolutions does not show that this was an important meeting of a ruling party leading a country in economic turmoil.
President Robert Mugabe’s opening and closing remarks did little to inspire confidence as they were dominated by the usual diatribe against real and imagined enemies.
Zanu PF resolved to actively push for the implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset), a new economic blueprint that has failed dismally to breathe life into the economy months after it was introduced.
Among the party’s resolutions was that no civil servant should be paid a salary below the poverty datum line, but there was no suggestion where the money to accomplish that would be found.
As if to demonstrate the poverty of ideas at the conference, Mugabe simply instructed Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to find the money to fund the promised salaries.
“Find money Chinamasa,” he said in his closing remarks. “You can’t say there is no money. Where is our platinum going? Where is our gold going? Where are our diamonds going?
“The budget must tell a new story. Those who work must be paid above the poverty datum line.
“We can’t really be at peace with our hearts if we say our people must continue to work for next to nothing.”
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Zanu PF has been in power since 1980 and should be the one giving us all these answers.
It is unacceptable that Mugabe would continue to blame everyone except himself for the mess that we find ourselves in.
The rot in the mining sector, which he now wants to blame for the economic malaise, has happened under his watch and it is time his party learnt to take responsibility for its failures.
Instead of generating ideas to take Zimbabwe forward, the Zanu PF conference was about celebrating a disputed July 31 victory.
Bulawayo for example, wanted to hear how Zanu PF intended to revive companies that continue to close down, throwing hundreds of workers on the streets every day.
However, nothing of that sort was discussed in Chinhoyi and it would not be off the mark to say the conference was a damp squib.
