Zanu PF pushing for one-party state
Zanu PF headquarters
Experts have raised concerns that the ruling Zanu-PF party’s initiative to have professionals and government employees undergo re-orientation at the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology is aimed at creating a one-party state.
Munyaradzi Machacha, Zanu-PF’s national political commissar and head of the school, recently announced that the institution’s re-orientation workshops would be extended to university lecturers, asserting that the program is now a national initiative rather than a party project.
In 2022, a Zanu-PF central committee report revealed that some police officers attended the Herbert Chitepo School for ideological re-orientation in preparation for the August 2023 elections.
Critics, including Citizens Coalition for Change spokesperson Promise Mkwananzi, argue that the program blurs the line between Zanu-PF’s party ideology and national programs, warning that it represents an unlawful imposition of party ideology on state institutions.
Political analysts have expressed concerns that the program is a strategy to consolidate Zanu-PF’s power and undermine constitutional provisions designed to separate party and state functions.
Rashweat Mukundu noted that the initiative appears to be a continuation of efforts to establish a one-party state, echoing policies from the 1980s under the late former President Robert Mugabe.
Ruben Mbofana, another analyst, criticized the program as unconstitutional and illegal, arguing that public servants should remain apolitical and serve the nation rather than being subjected to partisan indoctrination.
The Herbert Chitepo School, named after a prominent nationalist, aims to promote national identity and loyalty through its curriculum, which focuses on patriotism and Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
Established in the early years of Zimbabwe’s independence, the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology has been operationalized in recent years to instill Zanu-PF’s ideological values in civil servants and others.
In 2016, Zanu-PF resolved that no party candidate could stand for elections without having completed the school’s training.
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