The unity that binds us at heart

Below are excerpts of President Mugabe’s speech at the 21st February Movement celebrations in Matobo yesterday.

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All Ministers here present;

Members of the Politburo and Central Committee;

The Secretary for Youth Affairs, Cde Kudzanai Chipanga;

The executive of the Youth League and members of the Youth League;

21st February Movement delegates from all the provinces;

Members of diplomatic corps;

Service chiefs;

Traditional leaders here present;

Invited guests;

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and their teachers, comrades and friends;

Allow me to begin by expressing my profound gratitude to the Zanu-PF Youth League for organising this function and to all of you for coming to celebrate with me and my family.

I warmly welcome you all to this occasion that marks my 93rd birthday, which is yet another chapter in my life.

It’s not always to predict that although you are alive this year, you will be alive next year and the year after next.

It doesn’t matter how healthy you might feel, but the decision that you continue to leap and to enjoy life is that of the one personality we all call the Almighty God.

And so, on this occasion, we should thank the Almighty God.

My family and I thank the Almighty God that I was able to live from 92 last year to 93 this year. But much more to that I was able to live from childhood to this day when I am 93.

That’s a long long journey.

It’s a long long journey to have walked, a journey with its own joys, displeasures, its own sorrows. The joys are those when mother, father and you are still together; your brothers and sisters are still together with you.

And for sorrows are those that arise through missing these, I have missed them. I have just one sister left by my father’s second wife, Regina.

When I look back I say, “Ooh Lord why were these taken before me and why have I lived so long alone and alive”.

I cannot answer that.

Unogona kuzvipindura iwe?

Hazvipindurike, but I think sometimes I hear a silent voice saying, “All of you, each man, each woman has a mission to fulfil in this world.”

You have a mandate.

That mandate might run a short time, other mandates run longer times.

But your own mandate, your own mission . . . I have been allowed to run for as long as you are still alive.

You must discover what it is, and I cannot discover it more than saying I am one amongst many and not just one amongst many, but one who has been made by the many their leader.

And that, therefore, the mission that I have is the mission which has to do with the interests, the needs, the demands of those who have given you the position.

And I thank the Lord and say, “I accept the mission of my Lord.”

So, handisi ndoga. Ndine vamwe; ndiri mutungamiri wavo. Vamwe ivowo vese nezvido zvavo, zviito zvavo, kutambudzika kwavo, vanondipa mutoro iwoyo wekuti ndivabatsire kubvisa matambudziko avo neavowo vandakapihwaka; vandinopihwa.

Tingati tiine Central Committee, tingati tiine Politburo.

Hongu, ndokuumbwa kwatakaitwa ikoko nako njere dzichibva kumusoro kuti itai izvi ndizvo zvinonunura, itai izvi ndozvinopa hupenyu.

So I am not alone on this mission.

I am with others and I operate not alone. I operate with others. Ndiwo maitiro edu.

Ndiwo maitiro edu muZanu-PF.

Tinopanana njere, tinobatsirana nzira dzinosungirwa kuteverwa mumusangano wedu.

Sevanhu, nzira idzodzo dzakawanda. Ndodzatakanyora mubumbiro ratinoti constitution.

Constitution iyoyo ndiyo yatinoti ive mission yedu — a mission that is ours to fulfill.

Hatitsautsire, tingagumburwe. Zvingavepo asi nzira dziriko.

Ndidzo nzira dzatinopawo kuzvikwata zvatinoshanda nazvo — kumaprovince edu, kumawings edu, kuti mission iyi tigone kuyiyambutsa.

Saka ava vakomana ava veYouth League vanova nhengo yedu muparty.

You are part of that mission, part of that organisation we have put together for the fulfilment and accomplishment of the mission.

It’s one mission we must accomplish, which has to do with the needs and demands of our people.

And we have reckoned along the way that we need the youths because they have greater vigour than all of us in the party.

The women, they also have energies of their own which men don’t have.

And that we combine their efforts and become organic and become a body that is determined using its youths, using its women to fulfil the objectives that have to do with the way we help our people.

That is what Zanu-PF is about.

And I take this opportunity to thank the Youth League on this occasion for its energy — redoubtable energy.

It was only yesterday when they decided on organising the One Million Man March.

The youth showed that they can do it and they did it and surprised everybody.

Never before has there been an organised One Million Man March.

Vakanyara vaiti hazviiti, vakanyara vakanga vasingade kuti zviitike.

Cde Chipanga, the dynamism that is in you and others must not get extinguished. Moto uri mamuri iwoyo, that fire in you, let it continue to burn, properly burn in support of the party.

Tinozvitenda and I repeat again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

We are assembled here tichiti tiri pabirthday re93 years. Mhemberero yedu ikashaya mipururu inobva kumadzimai nevanenge vachigona kuimbira nekutambira and dance . . . sezvataona maVice-Presidents moved into action.

Ndanga ndisati ndavaona vachidaro, but ndozvinoitwa muZanu-PF izvozvo.

Aiwa, tinozvitenda.

And so, let me say happy birthday to me.

Ndinoti ihappy birthday yedu tose. Pasina mitambo iyoyi nekugona kuorganiser kwakaitwa uku tichitarira huwandu hwevanhu . . . so, tinopamhidza zvakare kuti tinotenda.

Zvanzi pano tichapihwa briefing.

Pakavigwa Cecil John Rhodes, ndopane chikoro chine zita rake futi.

Asi tanzwa vachiti aiwa vaakuzochinja zita rechikoro ichi kuita Matopo Junior School. Ah, iye anga achamuka here?

Achimuka achienda kupi?

Ini ndaiti dai aikwanisa kungomuka kana uri mudzimu wake, kungomuka chete kuti, “Ndini Rhodes. Musoro wangu uyu, ndaburitsa muguva.”

Ah!

Ndingati vakomana it’s not just one bullet, it’s not just an AK rifle, but machine gun kupwanya musoro wacho.

Asi hatisirisu takamuuraya imi wee.

Hameno kwaakafira kuSouth Africa, asi anga akaita mhiko yekuti ndoda kuvigwa kuno.

Mabhunu ekunowo ndobva abvumawo chido chake, muwill yake ndokubva vazomuviga kuno.

Zvakaitwa nemabhunu izvi.

Theme yemacelebrations edu yambotaurwa kuti ndeyekupa rukudzo kuhutungamiriri, asi tichiti izvozvo zvibatsire kuti zviri muvadiki kuti zvavanogona kuita, mavalues avanawo, tovapa energy; be unleashed in the direction of progress, in the direction of not just structuring the youths, but structuring the youths so that the youths can, in a formidable way, help to structure the society.

The youths, we all accept that they are not just members of the party today, but they will lead after us.

And that, therefore, is absolutely necessary because they also are undergoing the learning process.

So, it is absolutely necessary that they are watching us, elders, and try to learn from us, and adopt the ideas we might bequeath to them, constructive ways to build the society that we, as elders, have adopted and cherish these as their own.

So, tomorrow the youths will accept these, use these as foundations on which they can properly run our society; in other words, properly govern our nation.

Let me say that as a party and Government, we recognise that our youths are an important asset to us as a nation.

They carry with them quite a number of attributes, ideas, skills and, of course, experience that they get along the way and carry these into the future.

Hence, as I said, they are our future rulers.

That is why both our party and Government value the youth, they are a vanguard of our revolution now and tomorrow.

Their ideas, as they express them, will help them.

These ideas and experience will help them move together as we have done.

On our part, we shall continuously work with the Minister of Youth and his colleagues in Cabinet in effectively harnessing the potential of the youth.

And we are nurturing youths with certain potentialities to acquire skills to educate them to have that ideological instruction.

I hope our youths are making use of that Chitepo Ideological College in order to know the past, the foundations of our revolution as well as prepare themselves for the future; chart the road of governance tomorrow.

There also must be national youth service.

I don’t know why we have slowed down, we dragged our feet on this one.

We certainly must start the National Youth Service Programme.

However, on their own part, there are certain things that they have to avoid doing; they should have dos and don’ts.

The world is not much very kind to us.

Even the air that we breathe, they say, is replete with viruses and germs of all sorts that harm the body.

Also nowadays, there are diseases like HIV and Aids, which are transmitted from one person to another neamwe asina kuzoti svasvamhira kuno; vana Ebola.

We were lucky.

But we have a huge section of our population attacked by HIV/Aids, and we lost the earlier part. We did not know what to do. We lost many of our young people.

We lost most of our young men and women, but mainly young men, and when one looks at various communities, it is the young men that are gone.

Kune shirikadzi dzakasiiwa.

Kune madzimai achiri madiki akasiiwa.

And these women seem to have some form of resistance, which the men did not have.

Kune vane maARVs, vamwe vari kupona nawo.

Vano mhanya kuenda kumadoctors, asi, still, the viruses remain in the body because a cure has not yet been found.

But we commend efforts by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and its partners in educating our young people to at least take precautions and abstain from premarital sex.

However, more needs to be done in regard to our behaviour. As we reference to our Command Agriculture yatakaita adopt, I am sure you will agree that it is one of the best ways of getting ourselves in a situation against hunger.

We wanted to start by using the waters in dams and organising the people around those dams.

At that time, it didn’t appear to us that we could adopt that Command Agriculture where there was no water — moreso at that time, we were suffering from drought.

But, nevertheless, for the ordinary communal farmer, we have programmes.

We have the Presidential (Well-Wishers Agricultural Input) Programme where we supply seed and inputs and other programmes shall also be adopted.

But I am glad that this year, God has blessed us with so much rain. Tinotenda Mwari madhamu akazara, mamwe akazarisisa zvekuti akaita overflow.

And zvinotipawo zvakare kuti pasi apa, mvura yepasi inonyura pasi iwande because matsime atinoita kuya kwatisina madhamu anozenge achiwana mvura yakawanda.

Tinotenda nemaprogrammes anga achiitwa nemayouths mumadhorobha. Vakangozvipa the task to clean the cities iwo pachawo.

So, there was a cleaning parade in each city.

VaChipanga, murambe makatoshinga.

Vanhu vedu havadi kuti tsvina yabiswa apa mangwana unoona yadzoka.

Hatingavewo here vanhu vanoti kana tsvina yabviswa — nzvimbo dzasanotsvairwa maplastic nemapaper nezvimwe zvakadaro zvatinodonhedza zvabiswa — toti pachedu “ah, haatichadonhedza”?

“I will not drop any plastic bags, empty bags. I won’t drop any pieces of paper anywhere.”

We must also have garbage bins across the city kuti vanhu vawone kuti haiwa, we, the authorities, are determined that Harare must remain clean.

In other towns, you are penalised if you drop maplastics, or paper carelessly — imhosva.

So, let’s take care of our cities.

I want now to refer to our problem, problem, problem, apparently unending problems of divisions, divisions within the party.

We want a party that is united.

When we say let’s be united, we will be saying let’s have the unity that binds us at heart and also intellectually — true, true unity.

The party has a programme, as I said, which is based on the party constitution and provides how people can get elected from one position to another.

So, why, why, why to try to circumvent the constitution?

Haunganzvengese constitution sebhora uchirovera parutivi kuti uwane chigaro, aiwa.

Hatina kumboita party yakadaro.

Whatever position you seek, it must be a position you can get upon a proper election.

Izvi zvekuti vanhu vanoda kudyarana kuti vaite create machairpersons or magroups anovasapota ivo, havambofa vakabudirira muZanu-PF.

People, whether they are to be chairpersons or any other persons in provinces or districts, have to be chosen by the people of the particular provincial organic framework — kubvira pasi apa kuyenda kumusoro.

Zvino vamwe varikupembera netumagroup twavo: “VaMugabe ngavachienda.”

(A woman in the crowd shouted “Kupi?”)

Ndozvandiri kubvunzawo kuti, “Ndoenda kupiko?”

Kana Zanu-PF yati “chigarayi pasi” ndinogara.

Ndopandingabva, and by the way, handina kumbofa ndakakanvhasa.

I have never canvassed for any seat in the party.

I was publicity secretary for NDP, secretary general of Zanu; handina kumbokanvhasa, but I rose to be the President of Zanu. Handina kumbokanvhasa ini.

Azvisi zvekukanvhasa izvi.

Hazvisi zvenhimbe zvekubikira doro kuti, “Huyayi muzomwa kwangu mugondivhotera.”

Kana, hazvimbobudirira.

Vanhu, ivo pachawo, let them judge: “He is fit for this or that post.”

Saka, constitution yedu ndozvainotaura.

Maimposition hatidi; imposition hatidi zvachose.

Zvino vamwe vanoti, “Ah President, munofanira kuzorhitaya. Sarudzayi anokuteverayi.”

Zvino vamwe vanoti, “President, makukanganwa kuzorhitaya, tsvagai anokuteverayi.”

Ndiyo imposition yacho iyoyo.

Ndiite impose someone upon the party?

Aiwa, handidi ini.

Vandinonzi neconstitution ndinokwanisa kusarudza ndivo vaviri ava vamuri kuona vanoti Mnangagwa naPhelekezela Mphoko.

Iyi inyaya yeCongress, ndiyo inosarudza. President vaneta, togara pasi toona macandidates anenge ane shungu.

Vamwe vanozvipira ipapo.

Saka, hatidi kudzivirira vane shungu dzokuti vangofirawo mutry.

Ehe, varipozve vanofunga kuti vanewo kambiri kakati kuti; vanofunga kuti vanodiwa nevanhu kunzvimbo dzavo.

No, let’s just work and get to that time when, naturally, we can go to Congress.

We can have an extraordinary Congress when the President retires.

Surely for you to want to go to America kunotsvaga basa is stupid. Kuri kutandwa vasiri maAmericans variko ikoko. Iwe unenge washaya chiiko munyika mako?

What is that you get in America which you cannot get in Zimbabwe?

Ini handisati ndawona a single person who, after working for so many years in America, has come back with so much money.

Vanongouya futi vari varombo vakutotsvaga mabasa futi.

“Kowakapedza makore ese akawanda ayo uri kuAmerica. Wanga uchiisa mari kupi?”

So, let us value our own country, and its natural resources; work hard to transform our natural resources.

And as we work to transform our socio-economic system, improve on our agriculture through Zim-Asset, improve on our industry and commerce, improve on our infrastructure and ICT; you will see a better Zimbabwe.

MaBond notes are just a temporary thing and we want you to bear with us as we had to adopt them for a short period.

Anyway, let me end up by thanking all the youths from the depth of my heart and you all for successfully organising this event.

To everyone celebrating my 93rd birthday with me and my wife and family, I say, “Thank you heartily for what you have done.”

I, earlier on, said, “Yes, it’s my 93rd birthday. It’s something that the Lord has given me to be amongst the people.”

So, I say let’s enjoy it.

Enjoy it by way of music, dancing.

Enjoy the day also by way of eating and drinking.

Eating and drinking . . . I didn’t say what you should drink.

Izvo I won’t fill that blank, but others will say, “Handinganwe mvura. President did not say what not to drink.

It must be something beyond Coca Cola.”

Well, sure, let it be something beyond Coca Cola, but it’s up to you to measure yourself.

Aiwa, izuva redu.

Tatenda. Ngiyabonga, sibili.

Saka, ndinoda kukutendayi, especially the youth.

Pamberi neYouth League;

Pamberi neYouth League;

Pamberi neYouth League;

Pasi nevadzvanyiriri.