Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF is set to hold a crucial congress next month to renew the party’s leadership, a spokesperson said on Monday, amid signs that President Robert Mugabe will stay on as leader.
The party will elect new leaders and discuss issues arising from various reports to be presented at the congress from December 1 to 5, said party spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira.
”There will be the election of central committee members, then the election of the presidency — the president and the vice-presidents,” Shamuyarira said.
He declined to comment on possible changes in the party leadership, saying simply that ”some may stand down, some may not stand down”.
In an interview with his party’s mouthpiece, The Voice, two months ago, Mugabe said that at the congress ”new leaders will have to be elected. We [will] all stand down and … people will re-elect or reject us”.
Mugabe (80), in power since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, has been president of Zanu-PF since the 1970s when the movement fought a war against white minority rule in then Rhodesia.
The Zimbabwe leader has hinted that he would like to step down from the presidency after his term expires in 2008.
At his party’s annual conference last year, Mugabe told his supporters that he was not yet ready to resign.
”If I feel I cannot do it [govern] any more, I’ll come to you in an honourable way and say, ‘Ah no. I think I’ve now come to a stage where I need a rest.’ I’ll tell you that.
”I haven’t told you that, have I?” he asked.
The expected 10 000 delegates to the congress, held every five years, vote for their leaders by a show of hands from the floor.
Shamuyarira said the main item on the agenda is the report of the party’s central committee, which will be presented by Mugabe and from which discussions arise and resolutions adopted.
”The main item on the agenda will be the president’s report, which is the central committee report on what has happened over the last five years,” he said.
The 150-member central committee is the decision-making body between congresses.
Parliamentary elections due next March are also expected to dominate the congress, to be held in the capital.
The four-year-old land-reform programme, which has partly been blamed for food shortages in Zimbabwe, once known as the bread basket of the region, is also set to feature prominently during the discussions. — Sapa-AFP