adminTonderai Nyikadzino Correspondent
Zanu-PF, as a people’s party and the only political organisation in Zimbabwe which has liberation struggle credentials, must make its organs conscious of the fact that they do not exist to compete against each other for recognition by the party leadership.There seems to be a phenomenon of organs such as the youth and war veterans seeking to compete against each other for recognition by the party leadership.
War veterans, instead of being boastful as the ones who launched the Million-Man march mobilisation strategy, must be satisfied that its importance as a rallying point for mass mobilisation has been accepted by the youth and is now being effectively employed to demonstrate the strength of the party throughout the country.
In the same vein, the youth must also recognise that the million-man march which they are employing to rally support for the party is an effective idea they borrowed from the war veterans whose ranks include the Presidium.
Such recognition by both (the youth, war veterans and to a lesser extent the Women’s League) of the effectiveness of the Million-man march eases the mobilisation of support to the party.
Organs of Zanu-PF should not seek material gains from the President as if failure to do so means they will not render their unwavering support to Africa’s iconic leader President Mugabe.
Political characterisation of organs demanding material gains such as we hear from the Youth League expecting to get $5 billion from the President, must never be entertained in the revolutionary party.
If this cancer is allowed to exist, it has potential to destroy cohesion among organs of Zanu-PF.
I feel humiliated using such characterisation, but for the youth to ask for $5 billion to be availed to them when they meet the President seems to be putting the horse before the cart; judging from the challenges the country is facing economically.
Such a figure sets the expectations of the youth too high.
It appears that we have youth that have just arrived from Western capitals to demand their dues with scant regard to the prevailing social and economic challenges bedevilling Zimbabwe.
When we talk of poverty, we are face to face with circumstances of inequalities and injustices. Government, through the President, has addressed this issue by opening up the economy to the indigenous populace, the youth included, through land redistribution and other economic empowerment programmes.
Again, it must be noted that a fully-fledged Youth Ministry was created by his Excellence to champion and map out strategies to mitigate employment problems. The Ministry, particularly the minister, must ordinarily be selling to Cabinet projects that enable the youths to be engaged in viable entrepreneurial ventures.
The secret to success is found in the attributes upon which the war of liberation was fought. The war of liberation was fought on two angles; hard work and honesty. This produced a cadre who understood what sacrifice, sincerity, morality, dedication and devotion meant to achieve success.
It would be sad for the youth to play a blame game and accuse the ‘main wing’ of neglecting them when they do not first seek to rein in those from their constituency who are rich but not doing anything to empower fellow youth.
Black youth all over the world continue to shoot each other in the streets over meaningless causes when their counterparts are moving on and securing their future. All over the world, the story is the same – 20 to 30-year olds raking in money from unethical dealings on the internet. The saddest part is that these nouveaux riches were just as poor as most of us.
His Excellence the President has always said youths must not prefer the comfort of guaranteed jobs to the adventure of deciding their future. Youths can easily become a cog in the economy. This is the wisdom the President always counsels them to consider as viable entrepreneurial options.
It is the virtues that the elders of society who today comprise the “main wing” of Zanu-PF party acquired through experience. These virtues, such as sacrifice, sincerity, morality, respect, dedication and devotion should be applied for a noble cause for success.
The main wing therefore, in the light of this rich background, remains the flagship of the revolutionary party Zanu-PF mainly but not limited to the important role of mentorship and nurturing the youth to become better leaders of tomorrow.
In the forefront is the indomitable figure, the grand mastery of His Excellence President Mugabe who did not only lose most of the productive part of his life in prison, in trenches during the liberation struggle, but continues to do some immeasurable fire fighting against the historic predators of African people as a whole.
Gaining good leadership traits is the wisdom and wise counsel that must motivate the youths to yearn to meet one of Africa’s greatest sons and iconic leader, teacher and mentor President Mugabe.
Zanu-PF organs, particularly the youth, must be looking to gain good leadership traits rather than material gains whenever they meet with the President.
Tonderai Nyikadzino is a Graduate of National Youth Service.
Online Reporter