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Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
AT the age of 42, newly-elected Zanu-PF Matabeleland South provincial chairperson Cde Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu is the party’s youngest chairperson and believes the Youth League is the incubation centre for future party leaders.

Cde Ndlovu is one of the notable young ministers in Cabinet, occupying the Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry portfolio.

He was elected together with other provincial chairpersons of the party who include Cde Jabulani Sibanda in Bulawayo Province and Cde Richard Moyo in Matabeleland North Province.

The Bulilima East Member of Parliament paid tribute to Zanu-PF structures and leaders for having faith in him.

“The starting point is really to acknowledge and appreciate the manner in which the party handled the elections.

I believe that they were very robust, but in the end the wishes of the party’s structures are reflected in the outcome.

I also want to applaud the manner in which the President has led on this; he made sure that the process is clearly laid out leading up to the Politburo that set and the communication has come.

“I might also thank the structures in Matabeleland South and probably nationally in that they have clearly communicated that this party is here to stay.

I like the system that I am seeing where young people are being given an opportunity to also learn and take leadership within the party structures,” he said.

Cde Ndlovu horned his leadership skills in the Zanu-PF National Youth League.

He was the secretary for health which made him a member of the Central Committee.

He is the also the former regional manager at National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board in Matabeleland South Province.

The Insukamini Primary and Mpopoma High School former pupil believes the party’s youth league plays an important role in producing party leaders.

“While as the chairman, I graduated from the national executive of the youth league, in Matabeleland South Province we have about 14 people who graduated from the youth league directly to the main or women’s league and this demonstrates that the youth league is an incubation centre for the future leaders in the party; so, it is very important for us.

I am happy that this elevation especially in my case came in the form of an election from the whole province, not only the youths but all the three wings of the party, so it tells you that the thinking is aligned across the structures of the party,” he said.

The soft-spoken chairperson said his focus is now on delivering on his mandate working together with his executive.

Cde Ndlovu said Matabeleland South Province is endowed with natural resources and has a huge potential, especially in farming — both livestock and cropping — although this potential has not been tapped enough.

“We will be sitting as an executive to identify opportunities for empowering our people starting with party structures but extending to the generality of our people.

I always believe in a collective vision, yes, there are ideas that I have from mobilisation itself, we really need to tap into our young people in the province.

The major challenge always is the issue of birth certificates, documentation and National Identity documents.

We will be very aggressive in making sure that registry responds to this.

I am happy the President launched the partnership that we now have, the decentralisation of these registry services so this would accelerate that,” he said.

Cde Ndlovu said he will work hard in uniting party structures in the province as, “elections have an unintended consequence of dividing people, but it takes proper leadership to bring the same people together.”

He said part of his priority areas include working on the rehabilitation of the party offices which he said are in urgent need of an upgrade.

“Among other issues we would really be trying to capacitate our operations, administrations, everything is dilapidated from provincial to district offices.

We have already discussed with some of the colleagues and we will be moving swiftly towards making sure that everything around Zanu-PF in the province is reflective of the fact that this is the party that has been in power since independence. Currently we are not seeing that. We will be taking measures to ensure that we move with speed,” he said.

Cde Ndlovu said he is happy with the mood prevailing in the province after the elections which will greatly benefit the party which was the major winner in the just ended elections.

He said he has already reached out to the other candidates who participated in the elections to have their buy in.

“There will be no celebrations in Matabeleland South Province and there is nothing to celebrate except that we conducted our elections peacefully.

I did reach out to some of my competitors and I first praised them for peaceful campaigns and for a polite language that was out there.

I did not hear the animosity that we expect, especially coming from the candidates maybe for some who supported the candidates I wouldn’t know but from the candidates there was maturity in our campaigns.

“And I will obviously bring them on board to try to work with them.

They have ideas that is why they wanted to lead.

Their ideas are also very important so we will be looking at tapping at that,” he said.

The National University of Science and Technology graduate with a Masters in Finance and Investment believes that the province can overcome fears that the delimitation exercise to be conducted this year will result in loss of some constituencies.

He said besides the fact that the province has a huge population in neighbouring countries like South Africa and Botswana, there are still enough people to meet the threshold required for constituencies and even create more if they are assisted to register.

Said Cde Ndlovu: “I am still to have an intricate understanding of the whole province in that regard, but I will give you the example of Bulilima District where we did an exercise in Gwambe Ward and we found 350 people without birth certificates.

I believe that before we even go into South Africa there are more than enough people to advocate for a third constituency but people do not have documentation.

“So, we will be working on that, especially in the first-half of the year so that by June we would be clear how many people are registered, how many people we have assisted in getting birth certificates and IDs and I think if we take that route we will be able to save our constituencies and maybe even entertain the possibility of adding a new constituency.

We are going to address this in every village and every ward.” — @themkhust