No funds for congress: Ncube

Politics
MDC leader Welshman Ncube has hinted that his party might struggle to fund its forthcoming congress to be held “anytime” next year due to the prevailing economic hardship in the country.

MDC leader Welshman Ncube has hinted that his party might struggle to fund its forthcoming congress to be held “anytime” next year due to the prevailing economic hardship in the country.

by Nqobile Bhebhe

Ncube told Southern Eye that the congress was unlikely to be a huge event due to the depressed economy.

The last congress was in 2011. Next year’s congress will usher in new leadership following massive resignations of several senior party officials.

Ncube said their traditional sources of funding, which include subscriptions from party members and the business community, were hard hit by the harsh economic climate.

welshman

“Our congress is due anytime from January of next year. It will depend on how quickly we will be able to prepare for it in terms of doing restructuring and elections of lower structures from district level to the provinces,” he said.

“Also, in a difficult economy that we are in, our capacity to generate the necessary resources to fund that congress might be limited. Ordinarily, we fund our congress through subscriptions from party members and the business community which believes in values and principles of the party.”

He added: “However, in this instance both party members and the business community are struggling financially. It will likely be more difficult this time to get sufficient funding to fund the congress. But, we have a responsibility to have the congress.”

Early this year, the MDC directed its members to start paying monthly and yearly subscriptions ranging from $1 to $72 to “foster a spirit of party ownership”.

MDC MPs are paying $72 per annum while councillors pay $36 for the same period.

Subscriptions paid in each province are shared with the national office at a ratio of 60% for the province and 40% for the national office.

According to Zimbabwe’s Constitution, political parties with parliamentary seats are entitled to government financial support under the Political Parties Finance Act to prevent a situation where they end up being funded by foreigners.

Based on the Electoral Act (2:13), funding for political parties by the State is provided to any party with a 5% threshold of the vote.