FULL STATEMENT BY PATRICK CHINAMASA
The Zanupf Department of Legal Affairs is relieved and takes note that the furore/controversy/confusion/wrangle/much ado about nothing/social media hype/misinformation/disinformation that surrounded Harare Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) cooption of Cde Kudakwashe Tagwirei into the Zanupf Central Committee is now over and irreversibly settled.
From the outset, it was difficult to understand the source of the problem. Our Harare PCC convened on Monday, 31 March 2025, and voted to recommend the cooption of Cde Tagwirei into the Central Committee. The Province addressed the letter of recommendation to the Zanupf Secretary General, Cde Dr. Obert Moses Mpofu. The letter was copied to the Departments of the Commissariat and Legal Affairs, amongst others.
The National Political Commissar, Cde Munyaradzi Machacha, tabled the recommendation at the 384th Ordinary Session of the Politburo, held at Zanupf Headquarters on Wednesday, 2nd July 2025, and the cooption of Cde Tagwirei into the Zanupf Central Committee was approved, pending reporting to the Central Committee for adoption.
There was no objection in the Politburo meeting to the recommendation by Harare Provincial Coordinating Committee. When the 385th Ordinary Session of the Politburo sat on Wednesday, 30th July 2025, at the Zanupf Headquarters, and with Vice President and Second Secretary, General (Rtd) Dr. C.G.D.N. Chiwenga chairing, the Politburo confirmed its Minutes of the 384th Meeting (prepared by the Secretary General, Dr. Mpofu) with minor amendments. Confirmed without amendment on page 22 of the Politburo Minutes was Item 7.1.7, headed: “Co-option by Harare Province” which read: “The NPC indicated that prior to the issuance of the aforementioned co-option correspondences on co-options, some Provinces, including Harare, had already completed the process.
In this regard, Cde Kudakwashe Tagwireyi was co-opted by Harare Province and is now a Central Committee Member.” Also to be noted and confirmed by the Politburo, without amendment, on Wednesday, 30th July 2025, is Politburo Minutes Item 7.1.6 (also on page 22 of the Minutes), titled: “Circular on Co-Options” which read as follows: “It was stated that in the light of the Central Committee vacancies mentioned above, the Department of Legal Affairs had drafted co-options guidelines, outlined in a circular dated 30th June 2025, signed by the Secretary of Legal Affairs, Cde P.A. Chinamasa.
This circular superseded the previous circular dated 5th June 2025, signed by the Secretary General, Cde Dr. O.M. Mpofu, which sought to address a similar issue.” So the controversy surrounding Cde Tagwirei’s cooption into the Central Committee surprises me and took me completely off guard. Given Cde Tagwirei’s commitment to Zanupf and his track record in the service of the Party, the somewhat negative publicity and narrative surrounding his cooption into the Central Committee is undeserved.
I have been a member of the Zanupf Central Committee continuously and without break since December 1987, and a member of the Zanupf Politburo since the year 2000 to date, and I can state unequivocally that throughout this long period of nearly 38 years as Central Committee or as Politburo, we have never had to debate, let alone discuss, PCC recommendations of cooptions into the Central Committee.
We always treated such recommendations as fait accompli. The cooption of Cde Tagwirei is the first ever to be the subject of discussion and social media commentaries. The only explanation why the Tagwirei cooption has attracted such controversy may be because there are people out there who, for reasons best known to themselves, have an axe to grind. At its 385th Ordinary Session of the Politburo, the following cooptions were tabled by the National Political Commissar and were approved: Mash West, Cdes Polite Kambamura, Christine Gwati and Joseph Serima; Mat North, Cde Collen Ndebele. This means that at the next Zanupf Central Committee meeting, the National Political Commissar will table for noting and adoption five cooptions into the Central Committee, namely Cdes Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Polite Kambamura, Christine Gwati, Joseph Serima and Collen Ndebele. Those with eyes, let them “eye”, and those with ears, let them “ear”. Nokuti hatigoni kurega kutaura izvo takaona neizvo takanzwa.
