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Ngoni Masvaya Correspondent
On Thursday, the Zanu-PF Youth League is expected to roll out meetings dubbed the National Youth Convention (NYC) where young people will interact with President Mnangagwa.
The convention is inclusive and invitations have been extended to all Zimbabwean youths from the four corners of the country.
Youths in sectors that include agriculture, mining, tourism and church among others are expected to attend.
And as the harmonised elections close in, the Zanu-PF Youth League has been up to the task.
The youth league has embraced social media through #EDhasMyVote campaign which was launched in January and recently coined #EDpfee.
Both hashtags are trending on all social media platforms.
The youth league has clearly registered its presence on all existing social media platforms and is extremely active and visible while striving to reach out to 60 percent of registered voters.The Zanu-PF Youth League-led convention will not be limited to President Mnangagwa’s address to young people only, but will extend to a plethora of people who include vice presidents and Cabinet ministers.
President Mnangagwa has always said that he is a listening leader and he has exhibited this through his meetings with various stakeholders.
At the Thursday youth convention, youths can engage him and proffer solutions on issues bedevilling our country, particularly the young people.
As Politburo member and Zanu-PF Secretary for Youth Affairs Pupurai Togarepi said, the youth conventions will be different from the G40 cabal’s hijacked series of youth interface rallies held last year.
“President Mnangagwa is somebody you can talk to.
“We are going to have interactions with our President. And these interactions are not going to be like those interface rallies. The President is ready to hear you; what you want and what you think will develop Zimbabwe,” he said.
The convention will also forge a working relationship between the President and youths, that will foster development programmes for young people.
The youth meetings with the party leadership will not only create dialogue, but will ensure that young people’s ideas are incorporated into the country’s national agenda.
Deliberations between the President and young people are critical at this juncture as 60 percent of registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 40.
This is a significant chunk of the electorate to determine this year’s poll.
Youth league political commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu said; “From our side, this is a youth convention where we want representatives of various youth groups to gather and interact with the President.
For us basically, it’s not about the numbers that we are going to pull, but it’s about the opportunity that we are availing to the young people and have an interaction with the President.
“This is a convention where we will discuss issues affecting the youths from the four corners of the country,” he said.
Youth participation in all sectors of the economy, in politics and society remains important as this creates an environment conducive to youth contribution in the national discourse to ensure development.
Yet the youth rallies held last year under the banner of Presidential interfaces were nothing more than a Grace Mugabe showdown she used to take aim at then Vice President, President Mnangagwa and all those perceived to be aligned to him.
The youth league had been captured by the Jonathan Moyo masterminded G40 cabal to advance Grace’s presidential aspirations.
Grace reduced the interface rallies into some sort of a circus.
She ranted and behaved like uncontrollable Chihuahua off the leash, not at all addressing issues that affected the youth.
Those interface rallies were marred by hate speech, disparaging obscenities and blasphemy.
At one of those meetings Kudzanayi Chipanga, then the youth league boss, went into overdrive and equated former President Mugabe to Jesus.
Hero worshipping and boot licking were the purposes of those so called interface rallies.
Unlike the former youth league leadership which was used, misused and abused by factionists of the G40 cabal, Cde Togarepi-led convention will utilise this opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas with His Excellency.
It is important for the ruling party to break down its election manifesto into young people, particularly sections of the policy document that concern the youths.
Hopefully, at the end of these meetings, the youths would have acquainted themselves with the Zanu-PF manifesto and vision. Given President Mnangagwa’s excellent people skills, the concerns of the youth will be surely be taken into account.
The new dispensation’s notion is not only confined to government; the narrative has been extended and has cascaded throughout the revolutionary party, and the youth league has embraced it.
In coming up with this latest noble initiative, the youth want to lead the conversation on issues that affect them.
Other pertinent matters synonymous with youths on the agenda namely unemployment, corruption, investment, entrepreneurship, nepotism, empowerment among others will be tackled on this platform.
Indeed, there is a new broom, sweeping all the dirt left by corrupt G40 faction.
Online Reporter