GUEST: GODFATHER (ZANU-PF PATRIOTS ADMINISTRATOR)
CDE ADMIN ELIAS (ZANU-PF PATRIOTS ADMINISTRATOR)
DATE: 12th OCTOBER 2017
TIME: 1930HRS CAT
the godFather: Right….
Good Evening Patriots and standby for an Interface with the Admins
The whole concept of having this Interface is to give each and every Patriot an opportunity to contribute towards how this group conducts itself and improve on programming.
We believe each and everyone plays a big role in ensuring that the integrity of this platform is maintained and for that the Admins gives ear to all your concerns
May the following Patriots who forms part of our First Segment with Admins kindly step forward and we get the ball rolling
Cde Nevanji
Cde Jervas
Cde Soko Tabengwa
Cde Chrystiline
Cde Chrystiline: Good Evening dear Admins
Good evening Patriots
the godFather: Tete Mandy is an alternative member and she will be participating as and when her network stabilizes
Right…
I will be moderating and answering as well where need be but all issues can be handled well by Admin Elias
Let’s start with ladies,
Cde Chrystiline
When you heard of a chance to interact with Admins what was the very first question you thought of that you would want Admins to address?
#HandeiTione!
Cde Nevanji : A very pleasant evening Cdes and friends, fellow panelists and of course our ‘guests’ TeamAdmin Godfather and Cde Admin Elias
the godFather: The other Cdes who forms part of the panelists you can bring your first round of questions and allow Admins to respond before your follow up questions
Cde Chrystiline: Thank you Admin
What have been your greatest challenges in managing this esteemed group?
How do you intend to overcome that challenge?
the godFather: There have been two challenges:
1. Maintaining order in the face of seismic movements experienced within the party.
2. Coming up with good programs.
On the first one there isn’t much we can do, we sometimes watch helplessly as some very brilliant Cdes gets so low way below themselves in the way they debate. Our only action we take is
ensuring that Cdes do not revert to insulting each other thereby plunging the group into chaos.
On the 2nd aspect, we always come up with great topics that will be tallying up with current events on the political and economic arena within the country and the world over but we end up not finding the right guests who would have technical know-how on the subject matter and we end up reducing a great topic to chit chatting. That challenge is even found on the group. We have experts but when you book them for a program they just disappear only kuzovaona vachisadharara on a very trivial thread
Admin Elias: Good evening cde Chrystiline.
Interesting because I seem to search my mind on what the biggest challenge may be but surprising there seems to be none that stands out above the rest.
Being a Patriots admin is a big challenge in itself. It’s not easy to preside over your peers and remain in control. Bearing in mind some may be more educated, of a higher political standing and even higher social class.
It is equally challenging to come up with programming that can keep the group interesting 24/7.
So to answer u directly the biggest challenge is actually being a Patriots Admin.
Another thing to note is that, Patriots being a mirror of the party, it translates that the biggest challenge the group may face is derived from the biggest challenge the party is facing, that is trying to contain factionalism without being factional in the process
Cde Nevanji : The first question that came to mind was:-
Zanu PF Patriots is an international all-encompassing group, as long as one is a member of the party, one qualifies, this obviously means diverse characters n diverse problems…..
Do you ever get to the point of being exasperated by someone or by members and when you do, how do you deal with it?
Tete Mandy: Thank you cde Godbaba for this opportunity. My question is that as leaders n admins of this group what are your plans on gender balance especially when it comes to hosting of the Patriots programmes. We have very active like mai meme if given she can be a good host
the godFather: Tete Mandy
We have very brilliant lady Patriots, in actual fact we believe all the ladies possess some excellent skills and we salute you all who are on this platform for holding fort and standing toe to toe with male patriots and even winning some arguments. Of coz debates are not about winning on Patriots but sharpening each other but at times you just marvel as ladies “run away” with the debate. But for just staying on Patriots Admins have great respect for you.
However when it comes to anchoring and being a guest it sometimes becomes a tall order for ladies. It’s an observation we have noted. Our prayer is that ladies should push for their space and prove that they are equal in everything being done on this forum. You also need to support each other because there is strength in numbers. I pray that there be a sister group of ladies which once every week can approach the Admins and say we have an issue we need the whole forum to debate on and find solutions to. Imagine if you come and talk of shortage of sanitary pads to rural girls and brainstorm with the Patriots family on how this can be tackled and how the forum can play a role. It will be excellent.
Having women in politics is a huge challenge which patriarchy needs to accept and they can only do that if you prove that Yes We Can
Cde Michael Tabengwa: cde admin, researching for programs requires a lot of money for bundles and time, how does that affects your wallets? don’t you think we as members we need to start paying subscription fees, vamwe takuto dzidzira pano
Admin Elias: Good evening cde Tabengwa
Being in the patriots Administration is very taxing. Not only financially but on time as well.
This is a voluntary full time nonpaying job we have accepted for the good of the party.
Having said that, our job has been made easy by other equally committed patriots who have taken up duties in various departments like being PR anchors, bringing the news, anchoring prime time, volunteering as guests etc.
We also have patriots who prefer to remain anonymous but contribute bundles for bringing the news.
The idea of contributions was mooted at some point but we dismissed it and opted for voluntarism.
So patriots are open to volunteers in any area that can improve the group, be it financially or in programming. But at the moment we won’t introduce subscriptions
Cde Jervas: Bon sour our Admin,
My first??
How do you recruit so called Patriots, citing we only 204 and it seems u not in a hurry to add any Cdes, again citing the zanu pf populace which very huge, and there are many prominent zanu pf activists (i say), but u still stick to your ethics, can u please disclose to the 204 lucky ones here how u do is!
the godFather: Cde Jervas
During our early days we were looking at numbers more than quality. We then realised that we can make an impact with less numbers who participates and have a sphere of influence which is big itself. To show that our thinking was right if we send out a notification now it’s likely to spread thru many if not all Zanu Pf groups and beyond. That way the Zanu Pf message spreads like a veldfire.
So mainly to limit the level of infiltration we have resorted to members seconding their relatives and friends onto the forum. Once you bring a new member you become that person’s collateral if we find out he/she is not Zanu Pf.
We have 204 members with a participation penetration of around +/-25% and that is worrisome. We would like a situation where we increase the participation penetration to north of 50% then we can add more numbers to even a full house
Cde Nevanji : Zanu PF Patriots has been n still remains the numero uno of all social media groups with a presence on Twitter, Facebook n on WhatsApp….
Where do you see it in 2 years’ time?
Any plans to extend it beyond social media?
Admin Elias: Good evening Nehoreka
Plans are already underway to graduate Patriots from just being a social media grouping into various sectors like, politics, economics, charity and media.
Over the years ideas have been brought with members trying to contribute money to form a company, or to help a bereaved member but those efforts weren’t successful.
We then realised that patriots membership was too scattered across the world. Hence there was need to formulate some kind of structures to coordinate various activities. We tried this theory on the philanthropy initiative for cde Chinx, the patriots day, and even cde Defin’s modelling competition. All these were successful because we had constructed proper structures to deal with each initiative
Pursuant to that we have embarked on registering patriots as a legal entity.
We already have registered as a trust. We are now working on affiliation to the party. After that register companies, form structures in provinces et al
Cde Jervas: Cde Admin Elias there is a time u were very arrogant to one factional zanu pf members ignoring the other one but all of a sudden u changed and become or play like a neutral role can u, what motivated u, were u disappointed with your faction or what��♂ please enlighten!
Admin Elias: Very interesting again.
Politics is a game of more perception and less fact.
On the other hand, the duty of an Admin is to level the playing field so that everyone is comfortable. So here is how we do it, if as Admins we
realise that a certain clique of members are dominating the group and muzzling out a probably less represented group using unacceptable tactics like bullying, it becomes the duty of the admin to engage the domineering, offending clique to protect the group from degenerating
It’s not only on factionalism but various matters even religion
Looking at the period u perceived me to have been hard on a certain factional grouping, u will realise it was exactly at that time when patriots who have that factional inclination were causing havoc on the group and denigrating party leaders.
Now that faction has toned down so no need for me to be brutal.
It’s unfortunate u were among the unruly members but through our various engagements even in your inbox I am glad you have risen above factionalism. Hence your perception that I am ‘now’ neutral.
But believe me mukatanga futhi tinoburana zvakare. Its fact we all have our preferences. But let’s not allow that to polarize the group
Cde Chrystiline: Team Admin
We have heard some of our fellow Patriots disclosing their political ambitions
How best do you think the group can help in making our fellow Cdes realise their dreams
the godFather: Cde Chrystiline
We launched the program *PARTY AGENDA* for a number of reasons chief amongst them:-
1. To empower and sharpen Patriots on aspects of the Party
2. To enable members to participate in mobilization and party activities from a position of strength
3. To help members realise their political ambitions
The 3rd part once members know the dictates of Zanu Pf we will formulate a working team that will help those Patriots realise their dreams. It depends what level of ambition one has. Those who will be vying for legislator positions can engage us with their plans and we can assist on fine tuning it and even be part of their team if they feel a need for us to do that.
We once participated with members who were campaigning for Chitungwiza Ward 25 and the strategies formulated here were implemented on the ground. A team of Patriots led by Cllr Ngarande and former Zanu Pf member Munyaradzi Mugomeza went and were with Cde Makururu. It was sweet victory for us as it was a pilot project. So from that we believe if we approach any challenge as a family with an open mind we can assist members reach their political goals
Tete Mandy: Team Admin
I find the programmes here, Educative, Informative, Inspiring and Entertaining. Whoever is responsible is doing great; my only concern is that sometimes there won’t be any programme running, and if there is no programme running that’s when we witness some of the mischiefs. My suggestion is why can’t you put a suggestion box where every patriot will be allowed to suggest which programmes they like to be considered on your programme line up. We can vote for the suggested programmes if we need to. To be a group member should also be involved in decision making
Admin Elias: Tete
That’s a very good idea. Programming must come from all of us. Although I can’t really grasp the implementation matrix of a suggestion box.
The Admins’ inbox have always been open and even the main group has always been open for those with suggestions. And now we have this program were u can ask and tell the admins how u prefers to have things done.
This suggestion box, how do you propose we construct it?
Cde Nevanji : TeamAdmin
Over the years, we have watched as programs came n went, member came n went…..some members who one would have been forgiven for thinking that they were too important or made the group tick….but still new programs have come up n new members have filled the slot….
How do you come up with these programs n is there a way of measuring their impact on group members?
the godFather: One thing we learnt from His Excellency President Mugabe is that no one is bigger than Zanu Pf. We have adopted the same motto and we believe no one is bigger than Patriots.
What makes Patriots is its level of analyzing issues and its programming and discipline of members.
Our programming comes from world events but with a view of strengthening our own party. As Admins our ears are always on the ground and we keep an eye on any event that we believe can affect our party. For an example if President Zuma visits Zambia like right now he is there, we follow him up to see what kind of trade pacts he made and where does Zimbabwe fit into that and how should Zanu Pf counter that. So when eventually we make programs the bigger picture to us is Zanu Pf.
Cde Jervas: Our Noble Admin there is a time we feel a member has been unjustly Removed and unongonzwa Adios, but feel admin just ask proof which himself knows can be not available,
Question is do u consult each other as admins or mune a panel inoita scrutinize membership removals and time span of suspension!
Admin Elias: Very true cde Jervas
But one fact of life is that justice is never just to the guilty. Removing a member will never be just to the offender or sympathisers but punishment is a very necessary tool in ensuring peace n harmony in any society.
Rules and regulations like law are not always based on reasoning. Mitigation comes after conviction.
On the part of evidence, it’s our policy here that if u can’t substantiate it doesn’t bring it here. If u nevertheless u decides to bring an issue or assertion whose evidence u can’t find then u have to be prepared to face the consequences. This we do to safeguard the integrity of the group.
To help with that we have our information dept. that can help u find that evidence if u consult them for clearance first
Cde Nevanji : Cdes TeamAdmin
Do you ever let your personal prejudices affect how you react to issues, views or comments of members?
the godFather: Cde Nevanji
One of the qualities of a good Admin is to ensure the forum is well balanced and the members feels free to approach you. In this regard tolerance is exercised to the highest order.
If there are moments when our emotions take the better of us it will be less than 1% of our times as Admins. So no our personal prejudices ceased to operate the day we accepted to be Patriots Admins.
Do we get angry? We are humans. Does our anger contribute to our decision making? NEVER!
Tete Mandy: Thank you for your humble response cde Admin Elias. My suggestion is that the admin to have a special programme where every will be allowed to suggest 1 or 2 programmes of their choice, as long they are developmental, political, informative, educative etc. which are in line with the group rules
Cde Chrystiline: Team Admin
Rule # 16 on the rules governing Patriots prohibits chat barroning
How best can we share information available here which a member might deem useful to other Zanu Pf members not on this platform e.g. informative info from programs like Party Agenda
the godFather: There is a difference between information dissemination and chatbarroning. Our policy is always clear that should any Patriot feels the need to share our program content with other forums kindly approach the Admins and get their approval. The same way when someone wants to share information from other fora we always encourage members to seek clearance.
Now with chat barroning it will be a systematic way of exporting our content to other groups and without giving credit to the source. This approach is no different from a thief. That’s what we condemn
Tete Mandy: From this response cde leader Admin Elias it shows this group Patriots is also divided coz of factionalism. How are you as admin going to bring unity to the affected groups? We have witnessed Cdes taking things too personal.
Admin Elias: Tete
Patriots is a mirror of the party Zanu pf. Whatever happens in the party ripples to this group. This shows the group is made up of true party cadres.
Right now factionalism is tearing our party and inevitably that has cascaded to our group.
Unfortunately like I said 2 weeks back, we can only deal with the symptoms here. The disease is in the party. Until the party heals itself, then it will be a tall order for Admins here.
Nevertheless, I feel we have fairly dealt with the symptoms but systemically engaging the most fictionally rabid. I am glad most have toned down
Cde Nevanji : TeamAdmin
Is there ever a time when you worry abt members to the extent of feeling a need to go beyond your role as Admins n take it upon yourselves to seek help for individuals?
Not just politically but socially n economically?
the godFather: This is an excellent question.
The simple answer is a YES. As a group we have become more of family that is why we have a tradition of celebrating birthdays and other achievements by Patriots members. We also mourn and sympathize in times of challenges. This shows how we have become as a group – family.
However we have seen that social responsibilities of members should not overshadow our political reasons for existence. There has been suggestions of forming a burial society but as Admins we felt it will be piecemeal solutions. That is when the idea of a Trust was founded.
The Trust will be taking of these various issues we face as a group in our social standing.
Cde Jervas: Admins we have parliament sitting MPs here can we have a programme like checking what they are doing, for what they have been voted for like a progress check so as to encourage them working for the pple and retaining maximum Zanu pf seats, coz no one votes a lazy MP!
the godFather: PATRIOTS
Those who need to make contributions to today’s Interface kindly do so as the floor is now open
Cde Nevanji : We have had members of Patriots (including myself) get into higher party positions from previously held positions or from none in the case of others…
As Patriots Admins, do you think we have done enough to encourage n support our grp membership in growing up in the party?
the godFather: Cde Nevanji
We thought by engaging deeply on our analysis we had done enough and we took pride in calling ourselves the Premier League of all WhatsApp groups until we realized that we were missing on the very basics of Zanu Pf. The moment we found out that people did not know what constitute a Party Cell we had to look ourselves in the mirror. So in the bigger Zanu Pf picture we still have work to do before we say we have done enough. In terms of dynamics we can say yes we sharpened Cdes well but without basics we created trees without roots. It’s time we put the roots to the trees and water them
Chief Whip: The Admins
For the benefit of new members, what is the vision and mission of this group?
the godFather: This is contained in ADMINS INTERFACE E-01 a copy of which is available upon request
Cde Chrystiline: Team Admin
Is social responsibility on the list of your prime mandates?
If no, why not
If yes, kindly share how you intend to undertake such activities or share past activities for the benefit of newbies like me
the godFather: Social responsibility is handled by our Trust however as a group we have undertaken a number of activities before we weaned them to the Trust.
One such a responsibility was our philanthropic work we did for the late liberation war hero Cde Dickson Chingaira during the time he was not feeling okay
So yes social responsibility is on our list. We identify a need within the less privileged members of our society then we also look at our capacity to undertake that need before declaring our interests
Cde Jervas: Admins are u twins? or its one person disguising as Admin Elias and the other side as Farai! the way u respond is always to the point and satisfactory
Question:
How do u balance your Patriots admin time, work, family roles and leisure too!
Admin Elias: Its sometimes scary how when I am typing a response to an issue on the group only to realise the godfather has already posted exactly what I was typing. And vice versa. Or in dealing with members. Usually our reactions are similar. But ofcoz we have our differences and arguments. But we always do these behind closed doors
As for balancing time, that’s impossible. Usually our work or leisure time suffers. That’s why we came up with a full info department to relieve us of some of the pressure
Cde Jane: Admins why do you join the rest in praising beauty n crushing on particular lady patriots an action which demoralise other lady patriots?
Ko vamusingaonewo kunaka kwavo toitawo sei?
Admin Elias: Cde Jane
Admins are humans too who are also entitled to lighter moments on a social note on the group. This helps in making us approachable.
We believe all patriots are beautiful. Although we must appreciate that beauty comes in different forms. Not all beauty is physical. So we find everyone here beautiful.
When u find us not ‘crushing’ on u, it’s not that u are not beautiful but usually it’s because u are naughty and disruptive.
Nothing turns off the admins more than a nuisance
Tete Mandy: Am so impressed with the visions here. Will keep praying kuti dziitwe fulfilled especially company registration. We have our own here looking for work. At least they will have something to do. Mwari tinoti chasungwa pano pasi nekudenga chasungwawo. Habakkuk 2 vs 2 inoti write yr vision on yr tablet and it shall come to pass. Job creation ������Amen
Cde Chrystiline: Team admin
For the benefit of newbies, is the 15mins of Fame mandatory for the one celebrating his /her birthday or it’s a choice to enjoy the privilege or not
the godFather: The 15-Minutes of Fame is a tradition which any member can chose to partake in or not. It’s not cast in stone. When Admins are tied up it will not be done at all
Cde Nevanji : TeamAdmin
What happened to Patriot of The Week?
Cde Jane: Though you tackled this i feel you didn’t really get the point of my question don’t focus on m but take it as a general question this has really nothing to do with me
Admin Elias: Maybe u may need to rephrase cde. It’s funny u believe it’s about you. Believe me; u never crossed my mind although in your question u actually put yourself up as an example. So probably that’s why u believe the response is directed at u.
In all honesty, all patriots who have posted their pics have received positive comments and crushes. So I may have missed the import of your question based on my belief that what u are referring to has never occurred on patriots. Apologies
Cde Chrystiline: OH OK
Are we likely to have the 15 min of Fame for the Admin Godfather or we meet next year?
Cde Jane: My plea is please crush on everybody to instill confidence in all lady patriots try it, acknowledge every lady patriot and the results will be amazing i understand you humans but you have a role to play muri vanasamusha vepano don shoe the other kid kuti you love the other more.
Listen to Tongai Moyo’s song otherwise the ones you see active its because of the recognition n attention you give them once a lady is ignored they withdraw. I hope you see reason in this beyond nuisance
the godFather: Like I said in the morning, if one doesn’t worship a Christian God it doesn’t mean they worship a Christian Devil. As Admin Elias said in his response, if an Admin says A is beautiful it doesn’t mean B is ugly or vice versa
Admin Elias: There is reason indeed. Although we are not always online. Sometimes we come back to find the crushing moment has already passed and overtaken by a serious thread. It becomes difficult to disrupt a thread just for crushing purposes. But point taken, will start today.
Cde Jane, you are beautiful
the godFather: PATRIOTS
It’s been a great Interface E-02 and thank you all for taking part. All your input and ideas are being computed and the Admins will do everything in their power to incorporate those contributions into Patriots’ Administration policy for the betterment of this great platform.
From me and my fellow Admin Elias its bye for now and goodnight
good stuff.