adminSenior Reporter
THE Manicaland provincial youth league will today elect a fund-raising committee that will source donations towards the hosting of the 21st February Movement celebrations in Victoria Falls.The annual event is held to celebrate President Mugabe’s birthday, who turns 91 next month.
Zanu-PF provincial youth vice-chairman, Cde Mubuso Chinguno, on Wednesday said a committee would be elected today to spearhead fund-raising programmes.
Although he could not give exact figures the province was aiming to source, Cde Chinguno said they expected great response from their traditional sponsors.
“We will hold a meeting at the PA’s Conference Room on Friday where we shall elect members to spearhead fundraising. As youths, this is a great event to us for we are going to celebrate the birthday of a person we emulate,” he said.
The national deputy secretary for Youth Affairs, Cde Kudzi Chipanga, said they were preparing for a big event.
“We set up various preparatory committees in our national executive that are working around the clock to ensure that the celebrations will be a great success. The celebrations will be held in Victoria Falls and we need to ensure that reliable transport is available to ferry thousands of people from all walks of life who will attend.
“Our President is a great one and we want his legacy to live on. He spearheads black empowerment and the right of Africans. We want to emulate him and that is why these celebrations are held annually to cherish his birthday. He is a rare breed of leadership and we pray to the heavens to keep him in good health.
“Our President is a champion of political independence which dates back to the liberation struggle and he is finishing his work by ensuring economic independence through the land reform programme and the indigenisation drive.
“His leadership gives us a sense of security. We sleep well when he is in power and for that we ask the Lord to give him more years of good health,” he said.
Cde Chinguno said the President has lived healthily for these years because he has a high level of self-control.
“As youths we want to emulate that level of self-control and self-discipline. He is consistent as evidenced by his unwavering stance on the founding values of the liberation struggle.”
On Sunday, the youth league will tour the proposed venue and facilities with all stakeholders including authorities from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management and political leaders.
At least 15 000 people thronged the Sakubva Stadium when Manicaland hosted the celebrations that saw secretaries-general of liberation movements in Sadc gracing the occasion.
In 2013 the celebrations were held at Chipadze Stadium in Bindura in Mashonaland Central Province. The celebrations were held under the theme: “Youth Indigenisation, Empowerment, Development and Employment Creation.”
Last year the celebrations were held at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera under the theme “Zim-Asset, Growing the Economy for Youths Empowerment and Employment”.
Thousands of locals and foreign delegates attended the commemorations to celebrate President Mugabe’s 90th birthday.
This year’s theme was set to be announced yesterday (Thursday).
President Mugabe was born in Zvimba District on February 21, 1924.
He was educated at mission schools and eventually attended the University at Fort Hare in South Africa (between 1950 and 1951), before becoming a teacher. In the late 1950s he taught in Ghana, where he became interested in Marxism and African nationalism.
After returning to Southern Rhodesia in 1960, he became publicity secretary for the National Democratic Party (NDP).
Led by the late Vice President Cde Joshua Nkomo, the NDP was a nationalist political party that opposed white rule in what was a British colony.
After the NDP was banned in 1961, President Mugabe became secretary-general of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu), which was also soon banned due to its opposition to white rule. In 1963 he assisted in the formation of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) and soon became the secretary-general of Zanu which was also banned.
In 1964, President Mugabe was arrested for his political activities and detained by the Rhodesian authorities for 10 years. Studying law during his time in prison, he received degrees from the University of South Africa and the University of London by correspondence.
He also remained an extremely popular nationalist figure, with many Zanu members choosing to support him as leader of the party instead of the incumbent Ndabaningi Sithole.
After his release he left Rhodesia for neighbouring Mozambique in 1974 and led the largest of the guerrilla forces fighting a protracted and bloody war against the Rhodesia Front government of Ian Smith.
At the end of the war in 1979, President Mugabe emerged as the favourite of the oppressed Africans.
He won the general elections of 1980 after calling for reconciliation between the former belligerents, including white Zimbabweans and rival political parties, and thereby became Prime Minister on Zimbabwe’s independence in April 1980.
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