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President Mugabe

PRESIDENT Mugabe today begins a marathon set of interactive meetings with the country’s youths with a bumper rally in Mashonaland East where the ruling Zanu-PF party will launch a massive campaign for voter registration of young people ahead of next year’s watershed harmonised elections.

The meetings, being organised by the party’s youth wing, will see the President interacting with young people in all the country’s 10 provinces in a move meant to listen to their concerns with a view to addressing them.

Today’s rally is being at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera and will be followed by a similar gathering in Manicaland on June 16 before the President makes a date with youths in Masvingo. More rallies will be held throughout the country until October. While the meetings are being organised by the youth wing and meant to address young people’s concerns, the Zanu-PF youth league has invited other organs like the Women’s League and affiliates such as the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association.

This is instructive because in the past, there has been friction between war veterans and other organs of the party but of late, there appears to be conciliatory moves to close ranks and work for the party and country. Speaking ahead of the rally in Marondera today, Zanu-PF Youth League Secretary Cde Kudzanai Chipanga said everyone, including war veterans, was invited to the event. “I can safely say we are now at 90 percent in terms of preparedness,” he said. “The tent facilities are being put in place and people have been mobilised.

All is in place logistically and we hope by the end of day tomorrow everything will be in its position.”

He added: “The only person we consider of paramount importance is the President, but at the same time we are a party wing and we work hand in hand with the Women’s League. They are free to come, we have invited the secretary for Women Affairs, Dr Grace Mugabe. The moment she comes it means women will also be part of us. Because the President is coming, obviously our Vice Presidents, Politburo, Central Committee members will come and that will not deter us from putting across our points as far as youths challenges are concerned.”

Apart from launching a campaign for voter registration for the youths, Cde Chipanga said, President Mugabe would interact with the youths, responding directly to their concerns. He said war veterans were invited to the event despite negative comments by some members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association.

“War veterans are our parents,” he said.  “Don’t mind about certain individuals in the association. They are not the association. We have invited them because they are our colleagues in the party. Don’t mind about individuals, mind about the association.”

We welcome the camaraderie which appears to be slowly coming back to the ruling party and its affiliates as it prepares for yet another assault on the general elections set for next year. We have always called for unity of purpose from everyone associated with the party of independence and it appears our pleas are being heeded. It is crucial that the party approaches the forthcoming poll with a single-minded resolve to completely bury the opposition, which despite attempts at a coalition, is at sixes and sevens because of a tussle for leadership positions.

President Mugabe is therefore going to set the tone for the ruling party’s campaign when he addresses youths today and we expect him to address the problem of intra-party fights and indiscipline which could derail efforts to win the polls by a wide margin.

Factionalism is a reality which the vanguard party must deal with and the President has in the past called for an end to it and we agree with him.

Ugly scenes like the one which erupted at the Bulawayo Provincial Headquarters where party youths clashed with war veterans and senior officials are abhorrent, unacceptable and totally inimical to the goals and aspirations of the party. Zanu-PF cannot go into an election divided and we expect discipline to be restored with cadres heeding calls from their leader to focus on the bigger picture instead of wasting time and energy on mindless bloodletting and petty fights.

We also expect the President to address concerns which have been raised by the youths in the past like lack of economic opportunities, access to land and housing, employment and education when he addresses them today.

Unity is the watchword and we envisage that Cde Mugabe will rally party faithfuls to put aside their differences and work towards a resounding victory in the 2018 harmonised elections. Zanu-PF cannot afford to lose focus now seeing as reactionary forces are regrouping and sponsoring opposition parties across the Sadc region to remove revolutionary movements from power.