Violence not the option comrades

speaking against violence and inter-party clashes. What triggered the exchanges?

JM – That was an unfortunate situation that I feel should never characterise national days. For us it was a response to unsolicited attacks by youths of other political parties. We were singing revolutionary songs in the Africa Unity Square when the MDC-T youths came to us and demanded that we leave the greens.
We told them that we were supposed to share the greens, as this was a national event. They briefly withdrew only to remerge coming from the direction of their party headquarters (Harvest House) along Nelson Mandela singing MDC songs and armed with stones. They started pelting us resulting in people fleeing towards Third Street.
I had to intervene and managed to control my guys. I then approached the councillor for Ward 30, Victor Chifodya, to try and resolve the impasse and that is when Clr Chifodya and I were attacked by those MDC-T youths under the leadership of one Nasho. That is when hell broke loose.
As Zanu-PF youths we deplore this violence because it does not go along with party values which are unity, peace and development, but we will defend ourselves when attacked. In fact, the party is very clear on the principle of non-violence. You will not find violence on our vocabulary. It is unfortunate that the MDC-T has deteriorated into a party of more violence. From the time when Learnmore Jongwe and Job Sikhala were at the University of Zimbabwe and Nelson Chamisa at Harare Polytechnic, the party has been synonymous with violence.
Unfortunately they have failed to wean themselves from that violent nature even now that they are national leaders. They still believe in violence and that is why they have failed to publicly denounce it.
Actually the violence that rocked the opening of Parliament and Machipisa shopping centre should be viewed in the same line with that which rocked the MDC-T congress in Bulawayo and PM Morgan Tsvangirai’s call for use of violence in solving political matters.

FN – The Machipisa clashes came a day after the Africa Unity square violence, was this a continuation of Parliament disturbances? What was the cause of the Machipisa violence?

JK – The clashes are basically unrelated though the temperatures are still high, the happenings at the Parliament Buildings could have triggered the clashes. There have been simmering tensions over the unfair allocation of market stalls in the suburb.
I am informed the MDC-T youths disturbed a meeting that had been called by former owners to discuss the occupancy of Mukambo market stalls. The police had sanctioned the meeting. The clashes had nothing to do with politics but the stomach.
The MDC-T councillors together with some corrupt city officials have been removing what they perceive to be Zanu-PF sympathisers from the stalls replacing them with known MDC supporters.
This has not gone down well with people who applied for a meeting to discuss this illegal transfer of stalls.
The stalls are not new, they were built by the previous Zanu-PF councils under President Mugabe’s empowerment programmes but the MDC-T councillors, some of whom have been suspended for grabbing properties, are seeking to improperly re-allocate them to their friends and relatives. This is being done even when their leases are still subsisting.
Before they had started discussing their concerns, MDC-T youths attacked them. Running battles ensued before the police intervened. The situation has since returned to normalcy. I feel that the clashes are not political but are a cry for new economic empowerment programmes by the sitting council.
This is not politics but the economics of the stomach. Those people want to feed their families and cannot sit aside while their only means of livelihood is being pulled from under their feet. They are bound to fight.

FN – The clashes between the political parties have seen the police being attacked and with some being severely injured. What could the reason?

JK – That is common of this foreign sponsored party. Their supporters have done it before. The record speaks for itself. Fresh in the mind, is the killing of Inspector Petros Matedza in Glen View recently and the attack of innocent women police officers at Marimba Police Station a few years ago.
MDC-T does not have respect for our law enforcement agencies. This is despite the fact they want to rush to the same people for assistance when they meet reprisals.
They have also been going around burning Zanu-PF district offices in Harare like what they did in Mbare District offices, Siya-So and others.
As Zanu-PF youths we have never attacked the security forces because they are critical in maintaining peace and stability in the country.

FN – Why is that no youths from your party are arrested?

JK – We are peace-loving Zimbabweans and will always abide by the law. The hooligans in the MDC-T attack us and then rush to their masters claiming that there is violence in Zimbabwe.
The MDC is frustrated that it has failed to deliver the promises it made to the people hence are resorting to violence as a face-saver. The police will not arrest those who are not guilty.
FN – You seem to be alluding to the fact that the political party clashes could be related to lack of youth empowerment programmes. As youth are you happy with the opportunities availed to you?

JK – We are not happy at all. Harare has failed and that is the reason why it spent millions running after vendors in the city instead of increasing market stalls or introducing a hawker system to regulate the number of people selling in the central business district.
Skewed policies by city fathers have seen the city awarding the tender for providing and operating parking metres to a foreigner. Imagine taking the things that were being done by our youths and giving them to foreigners.
The retail and transport sectors are all being given to foreigners while youths are languishing in poverty. Those little things that should empower us are being handed over to foreigners and hence the youths are agitated.
Unemployment is still a problem and so the authorities should build more markets to accommodate people and not seek to cause confusion reallocating the few constructed by the previous councils.
We are even worried that with the coming of the Indigenisation policy some owners are disposing of their buildings for fear that they may be asked to cede 51 percent of their properties.

FN – Are youths happy with the empowerment programmes being implemented by Government?

JK – No, not all. We feel the youths are not getting their share because of a number of reasons, chief among them, lack of start up finances. Although the policies are in place the opportunities are not getting down to the youths.
The Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Cde Kasukuwere (Saviour) has done a lot in terms of creating the environment for empowerment of us youths but he doesn’t have support from some of his colleagues in Government.
Finance Minister Biti (Tendai) has been sabotaging these empowerment programmes for fear that they would give credit to Zanu-PF. We have always argued that Biti is politicising Government resources for the expediency of his party.
Youths in Harare have no farms, and these industries are their farms. They need to have a share in the ownership of these industries but Biti is not providing finances to buy into them.

FN – What is the position of Harare youths on the WikiLeaks revelations?

JK – We don’t have a position on the Wikileaks at the moment but want to urge the relevant department to have a through look at the sources; whether they are authentic or not.
After such an investigation can the party’s youth a take a decision otherwise these leaks can be used to divide Zimbabweans and Zanu PF as a party.
I want also to urge the media particularly the private media to exercise restraint otherwise as the vanguard of the party we will not stand aside as they rubbish our leaders.
Imagine a paper running a headline “Mugabe dead by 2013”. Is this good for the country? They are abusing the President. We want to warn them if they continue they will face the music. They will sell their papers in the UK and USA.