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(ZIMPAPERS) Zanu-PF conference roars into life today

Zanu-PF conference roars into life today
Thursday, 16 December 2010 21:49

THE 11th Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conference roars into life today with the party’s President and First Secretary, Cde Mugabe, expected to officially open proceedings with a keynote address to delegates. Hordes of delegates began arriving here yesterday for the crucial meeting which is expected to chart the party’s strategies for next year’s elections.

This year’s conference is like a throwback to the third edition that was held here in 1997 in the wake of revelations by the Labour government of former British premier Tony Blair, whose secretary for international development, Claire Short, wrote a letter trying to absolve the British of their colonial obligations to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe.

This year’s conference comes in the midst of equally shocking revelations from the whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, about how Zanu-PF’s partners in Government, the two MDC formations, have been colluding with western powers in a bid to undo the gains of independence.

To this end, President Mugabe, in his capacity as Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, has already said he is not prepared to continue with the Global Political Agreement, which brings Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations together.

The President recently said he would not extend the inclusive Government’s lifespan for more than six months beyo-nd its agreed expiry date in February next year.
The 11th Annual People’s Conference was preceded by Zanu-PF Politburo and Central Committee meetings in Harare on Tuesday.

A senior party official yesterday said, "I cannot divulge the full agenda of the meetings that will be held, but in essence we are looking at how we will go about regaining the ground we lost in the 2008 elections. Key policy issues to be discussed are indigenisation, economic empowerment, the state of the party and next year’s polls.

"Needless to say, we are geared to resoundingly win the elections. Our leader has publicly stated that elections will be held next year and we are going to enter them an united and rejuvenated party because of this conference."

The conference theme is "Total control of our resources through indigenisation and empowerment".

Zanu-PF’s last Annual People’s Conference was in 2008 in Goromonzi and the party held its scheduled congress in Harare last year.

The congress is held after every five years. A business expo is running concurrently with the conference and yesterday exhibitors were setting up their stands.

Several leading companies will be showcasing their goods and services. The chair of the party’s national fund-raising committee, Cde Noah Mangondo said the expo would be held with all future conferences.

He said, "We have done all the ground work and we are expecting more exhibitors to come and take part by the time the conference starts.

"We want to give this conference a new profile and expa-nd the business expo so that it’s held annually.

"The exhibition gives businesspeople an opportunity to network with their leaders while they showcase their products and services."-The Herald

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, ROBERT MUGABE, WIKILEAKS, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 5:03 PM