/ 18 December 2009

Time to rejuvenate, Mugabe tells Zanu-PF

Robert Mugabe is anxious to regain all power in Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe is anxious to regain all power in Zimbabwe, but his appetite for an early election may be tempered by the need to stamp out growing dissent within his own party.

Last week marked his first congress since being forced to share power with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe went in eager to convince Zanu-PF loyalists that he remains in control, despite the unity government and to rally them into a new election campaign.

But after spending much of his energy instead addressing the fights he says are ”eating up” his party, even senior Zanu-PF figures now admit Mugabe cannot lead them into the victory he craves before he takes care of matters at home.

Mugabe was forced to open up about an increasingly public fight over his succession, blaming the power struggles for his losses at elections last year, in which Zanu-PF lost its majority for the first time since coming to power in 1980.

”We are responsible for the poor performance in the election last year. We should be able to admit that the election produced a result that left a huge dent on the party,” Mugabe told a meeting of his central committee. ”The party is eating itself up. We must rejuvenate the party as elections are not far off.”

But Mugabe has a tough task if he is to lead his party into elections; throughout the congress there was more talk among his supporters of the internal factional fights than there was of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) or elections. While Mugabe talks up elections, there is a growing realisation, even from within Zanu-PF’s top levels, that the party cannot win unless it allows some internal reform.

Reflecting this view, Joice Mujuru, one of Mugabe’s two deputies and a key player in the succession battle, said the party must reconnect with ”the masses”, especially the younger generation that has ditched Mugabe’s nationalist rhetoric for the MDC’s promise of change.

”There is need for all of us to work and strengthen the party, make it more dynamic and relevant to the masses. I believe we particularly need to give special attention to the youths as they are the future,” Mujuru told the congress.

Reformists managed to ensure that the congress resolutions urged Zanu-PF to improve its ”internal democratic culture” and a ”clear-cut leadership renewal and continuity policy”. It is unlikely Mugabe will concede to this immediately and open debate on his future, but he will now be in less doubt as to the extent of the dissent.

To dramatise the divisions, text messages were broadcast to thousands of delegates, urging members to push for ”younger, more vibrant” leadership.

Even while it fights, Zanu-PF has ensured reforms key to a free poll are stalled.

Zanu-PF retains control of public media and no independent electoral commission has been put in place yet, while Zanu-PF has refused to debate reforms to the security forces, accused of a role in attacks on the opposition.

The army top brass attended the Zanu-PF congress to show their support. Tsvangirai said last week that he was setting in motion a programme to reform the military, but Mugabe said he would oppose any such plan. His party said: ”Zanu-PF, as the party of revolution and the people’s vanguard, shall not allow the security forces of Zimbabwe to be the subject of any negotiations for the so-called security sector reforms.”

It is hard to see what rallying point Zanu-PF would have for a new campaign. Mugabe is aware that the economic stability brought by the unity government would be a key issue in any new poll. He has moved early, trying to take credit, claiming he had thought up the economic reforms long before the unity government was formed.

With little new to promise voters, fears within the opposition are that Zanu-PF will resort to violence.

”Zanu-PF is mortally and fatally wounded,” said senior MDC official and senator Obert Gutu. ”They can only resurrect themselves by resorting to thuggery and violence.”