I heartily pay tribute to comrades who have served in different leadership positions at various stages of our revolutions pre- and post-Independence. Join me as I salute luminaries of our great nation – the late Comrades Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Tapfumaneyi Takawira, Josiah Magama Tongogara, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Nikita Alfred Mangena, Simon Vengesai Muzenda and Father of Zimbabwe Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo.
I equally pay homage to my predecessor and immediate past president of our Party Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe who steered the ship of our Party and its Government until I assumed the reigns. Today, the burden to carry on from where the forebears left, remains real, and the responsibilities to discharge it is ours collectively together, as a united party Zanu-PF.
Subject to the constitutional procedures of this Extraordinary Congress as aforementioned, I am humbled by the faith you have shown in me and I pledge to lead up to your expectations.
Comrades Delegates, Distinguished Guests:
Zanu-PF is a great Party, so too, is its history and its mission as it entered into a covenant with the people of Zimbabwe, one underwritten with sacred blood of heroes, some of who died while others live with frightening bodily marks and invisible injuries of trauma from a protracted war of liberation. This fact of Zanu-PF special status and standing as the Party of national liberation makes it a national heritage and a courier of national legacy and, above all a definer of our country’s future. Thus, Zanu-PF as the governing Party, makes and requires it to be a national home for all.
It must also be an instrument available for a national purpose and a destiny. Zanu-PF can therefore, not exclude, divide or fragment, nor be allowed to sag or succumb for lack of foresighted leadership. To this end, our party must be an instrument for the realisation of the collective dreams of our nation and its people. It must take bold positions on matters of national interest, importance and conscience.
That is our duty and responsibility as a party of national liberation which wields power responsibly, and which runs the Government of our great nation with responsibility.
Comrades Delegates,
Democracy, equality and the rule and respect of the law and the Constitution runs through the very blood and genetic makeup of our Party, pre-dating Independence. In this regard, we must always encourage and instill intra-party democracy at all levels. Party structures from the cell/village levels right up to the Central Committee must be platforms in which the membership discusses freely without fear or favour, matters concerning the Party as well as developmental issues, which affect their communities and the nation at large.
Equally, elections at all levels in the Party must be undertaken as guided by the rules and regulations of the Party, free of chicanery, manipulation and favouritism. In the same vein, democracy bids that as a political Party, Zanu-PF must always compete for office, through pitting itself against opposition parties in elections, which must be credible, free, fair and transparent.
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