The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
The Zanu-PF Youth League has formally endorsed President Mugabe as the party’s candidate for the 2018 harmonised elections. At the organ’s National Assembly meeting in Harare yesterday, party Secretary for Youth Affairs Cde Kudzanayi Chipanga said all 10 Zanu-PF provincial youth structures were behind the President. Cde Chipanga said: “Your Excellency, all the youth leaders who are here have come from all the 10 provinces. We had our executive meeting yesterday and agreed on many issues.
“We also made a decision that while we respect our party leaders, there is a difference between respect and support. We are going to respect leadership but when it comes to support, we only support you as our candidate for next year’s elections. We support Baba naMai Mugabe. You cannot separate Baba Mugabe and Amai Mugabe. You cannot say you love President Mugabe without saying you love Amai Mugabe.”
Presenting a report on the state of the party, Youth League National Political Commissar Cde Innocent Hamandishe said: “The committee sat down and agreed that for the post of President, there shall be no other candidate besides you. Therefore, we want to make it clear that there should be no person who should even dream of being First Secretary of the party because that post is not vacant.
“We will stand by you and deal with anyone who harbours any intention of challenging your office. Our position as the Youth League is that there should be no imposition of candidates. In that regard, we do not want any MP to be imposed. Every Member of Parliament should prepare to be challenged. There are many youths in the party who are prepared to contest in primary elections, and we want them to be given an equal chance as long as they meet the requirements stipulated by the party. We want to go for the elections with candidates who are chosen by the people and also want to do away with practices such as using money to buy votes. The best candidates should be allowed to contest.”
Cde Hamandishe said youths were targeting to deliver at least 60 percent of the five million votes the party is eyeing in next year’s polls.
“We have done our mathematics as the Youth League and we are confident that we will make up the majority of voters the party is targeting. We know that we can make up at least 60 percent of the five million. Cde Hamandishe also took a swipe at Cabinet ministers who are reluctant to support young people, and singled out ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira as being “youth-friendly”.
On indigenisation, Cde Chipanga also implored authorities to look into the ceding of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe’s stake to foreigners.
“We do not understand why Barclays Bank was sold to foreigners when we have youths who are capable of being in charge of the bank. We want to get to the bottom of the matter and understand what happened. Other banks are fully indigenised and we do not know why it’s different with Barclays Bank.”
