Own Correspondent|The ruling ZANU PF party exposed its hard-core tribalism at its just ended national conference by completely ignoring and discouraging use of IsiNdebele and other official languages during proceedings.

The party failed to have a Ndebele interpreter with delegates making noise when one tried to speak in Ndebele forcing proceedings to go on in predominately Shona and a little bit of English.

During the Conference Fortune Chasi the Minister of Energy tried to give part of his report in Ndebele and was heckled by the crowd while other politburo members stopped him from using Ndebele.

Political analyst kelvin Mazhandu said, “During the Robert  Mugabe era The norm has been that  Absolom Sikhosana interprets speeches from Shona to Ndebele for the benefit of the 3 Matebeleland provinces that are predominantly Ndebele speaking. This time conference ignored the linguistic needs of Bulawayo, Mat North and Mat South.”

Mazhandu added  that, “It was also shocking that most politburo members including the National Chairperson Oppah Muchinguri did not recognise the National Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu who is the second most senior high ranking ZANU PF official from Matebeleland.”

Some Conference participants from Matebeleland, Midlands and Bulawayo who spoke expressed concern over the blatant disregard for the Ndebele community, who were reduced to by standers at the National Conference.