OPPOSITION leader Linda Masarira is running a spirited campaign to ensure her party LEAD has representation in all the 1,958 local wards across the country by the end of this month, at a time the rival MDC is engaged in bloodletting power struggles.
Masarira, who broke ranks with Thokozani Khupe in April 2019, has instructed each party member to recruit at least ten others in the next two weeks, and to ensure each ward has shadow Councillors by month-end.
This is contained in an internal party memo seen by Zimbabwe Voice, which was penned a few days after the Supreme Court judgment which set the rival MDC camps on each other’s throats.
In the memo, Stephen Maambira, the LEAD National Organizer, writes: “By the powers
vested in me as the National Organizer, I am requesting every LEAD member to belong in their provincial group and to recruit at least 10 people per person in the next fortnight.
“The political landscape has changed dramatically and drastically in the
past 72 hours and we have to pull up our stockings and become a force to reckon with,” the memo, penned on 2nd April, read in party.
“As our President Mambokadzi Linda
Masarira rightfully said, we have to take advantage of the situation and make LEAD the household name in Zimbabwe political economy and the party of choice which will LEAD Zimbabwe to prosperity.
“Our principle is simple, we Rome. What do we mean when we say Rome? Recruit, Organize, Mobilize, Elect.
“We all have the mandate to Recruit, without a large base of membership we can’t take Mambokadzi Masarira to State House and neither will I make it as a senator and you will not be able to make it to the august house or Council.”
The party advises structures that its annual conference is coming in the “next few months” and the targeted attendance figure is 10,000 with each province contributing a thousand delegates.
“As from now every LEAD member is an ORGANIZER and we expect you to organize structures in your ward of residence so that we will be able to comply with the LEAD strategy of having 1958 shadow councillors by 30 April 2020.
“We need to Mobilize for our first Annual conference to be held in a few months time and we expect 1000 people to attend from every province.
“After all is said and done we will have to ELECT each other into power. Together we can make Zimbabwe great again. You are the change we have been waiting for,” said Maambira in the memo to structures.
Speaking on the feasibility of the LEAD strategy, Pretoria-based Zimbabwean academic Professor Patrick Nyaguse said if there was anything the MDC lacked, it’s structures that span across the country. Professor Nyaguse said LEAD would give Zanu-PF a good run for its money if it manages to set structures across the country.
“As we all know, the MDC since it’s founding days of Morgan Tsvangirai has lacked structures that span the length and breath of the country.
“Data from the World Bank published in 2017 says that 68% of the Zimbabwean voters are in the rural areas and farms. If LEAD manages to set up structures where the heartbeat of Zanu-PF is, that will surely give the ruling party a good challenge.
“However, it requires huge commitment on the part of LEAD membership to drive the structures and ensure they remain relevant in the absence of elections. It will also require resources, but willpower can triumph even where resources are thin,” said the published author and academic.
The MDC factions led by Nelson Chamisa on one hand and Khupe on the other have been engaged in energy-draining fights which observers say may dishearten voters ahead of the 2023 general elections. – Zimbabwe Voice
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