Manicaland gears for Million Men March

Cletus Mushanawani News Editor
ZANU-PF Manicaland provincial youth executive has intensified their mobilisation drive towards the One Million Men March to be held in Harare next month where youths will have a chance to have an address from President Mugabe.

The wing’s secretary for administration, Cde Victor Saunyama, said they had come up with outreach programmes for the 26 constituencies in Manicaland where they would meet youths and find out their grievances before coming up with a detailed report that would be presented to the party’s leadership for redress.

“As Manicaland, our mobilisation for the One Million Men March is now in full force and we have a target of mobilising 100 000 youths for the historic event. This requires a lot of effort and we are leaving no stone unturned in our mobilisation effort. When the date for the march is announced, we want to have our presence felt and if it means negotiating with the National Railways of Zimbabwe for transport, let it be. The response we have been getting so far is overwhelming and we want to have enough resources to transport and feed the 100 000 plus youths we will mobilise from Manicaland,” he said.

Cde Saunyama said the mobilisation programme was expected to start with Mutare North. The meeting was scheduled for yesterday (Thursday).

Today (Friday), the executive will be meeting youths in Mutare Urban, Saturday they will be going to Mutasa, Sunday they will descend on Chimanimani before proceeding to Chipinge where meetings will be held on Monday and Tuesday.

“Our aim is to meet youths in all the 26 constituencies so that we have an appreciation of the real challenges they are facing. Challenges facing youths from Mutare North are different from those being faced by their peers in Chimanimani West. We want to come up with a comprehensive document that we will present to the party’s leadership for them to have an appreciation of the challenges being faced by the youths.

“We have realised that some of the empowerment programmes are well pronounced in the Press and are not cascading down to the actual beneficiaries out there. Only a few individuals with connections in higher offices are benefitting, but we are saying no to that because the youths who suffer the brunt when campaigning for party candidates during elections are being left out. The toyi-toying youths should be the major beneficiaries because they are the face of the party in their respective constituencies,” he said.

Cde Saunyama hailed the co-operation they were now getting from some Cabinet ministers who had a tendency of shunning their activities.

“We were motivated by the support we got from some of the Cabinet ministers from Manicaland who had a history of ignoring us when we organised our inter-district conference at Marymount Teachers’ College recently. Some of the ministers went out of their way to ensure that the conference was a success and we really appreciate their efforts. However, this should not end there because when we mobilise resources for our activities, we also expect them to chip in because we are the vanguard of the party. We are their foot soldiers and we should closely work with them.

“Ministers should not forget that they come from the people before their appointment into higher offices. Some work to enrich themselves forgetting the people who made them to be what they are today. This always gives us challenges when campaigning for votes because the electorate usually point this out,” said Cde Saunyama.

He added: Our ministers should take a leaf from President Mugabe who is a symbol of humility. He is always in touch with the grassroots, yet some of the people he appointed are big-headed. Some of them are harbouring sinister ambitions.”

Cde Saunyama encouraged youths to come out in their numbers during the constituencies outreach programmes.

“We lose out if we fail to attend some of these meetings. Manicaland lost out on the Chiadzwa diamonds because we were not speaking with one voice. Youths from Zimunya/Marange have nothing to show for the presence of diamonds in their area and this is the time for us to reorganise and correct the past mistakes,” he said.