‘We’ve already won 2018 polls’

FS: Cde Chipanga, you have visited five provinces to date holding interface meetings with President Mugabe. What prompted the idea of having these provincial rallies?

KC: There is nothing unique with these rallies because they are part of our constitutional mandate as the Youth League. We are expected, by the party constitution under our aims and objectives, to mobilise young people to participate fully in the political, social and economic activities in this country.

The aspect of youth mobilisation comes under the political cluster and that is how these interface meetings came into being. We have got various strategies to mobilise our young people such as rallies, galas and this time it’s interface meetings with the President.

FS: You are now going for the sixth rally in Matabeleland South on August 12, have these meetings brought any tangible results to the ordinary youth or it’s just you politicians advancing your interests?

KC: Several tangibles have come out of these assemblies. Firstly, that access alone of young people meeting the President, having direct interface is quite an achievement.

We were not used to such platforms. It was quite strange for young people to meet the President on a one-on-one basis airing our concerns and His Excellency responding directly to them.

We have also benefited because our youths now have a voice which is being heard by even our ministers in Government and elders in the party. They now recognise that we have a Youth League which must be looked after, which must be listened to.

The President has taken an initiative to support young people to participate freely in electoral processes in the party.

We no longer have a situation whereby young people are sidelined when it comes to choosing party leaders, councillors, National Assembly members.

We are now able to contest in various positions, be it in the State or party structure. It is all because of the youths’ closeness to His Excellency.

In fact, the President has become a lawyer, an advocate for young people’s rights. This is quite an achievement.

Recently, he launched the Beitbridge-Harare Highway dualisation project and has advocated that young people must take a role.

All things being equal, 300 000 jobs are going to be created out of that road rehabilitation exercise. We believe the majority of them will be young people. Industries are being resuscitated and this means employment creation for the youths.

Talk of Tokwe Mukosi Dam, who is going to benefit? Young people are going to embark on horticultural projects and fish farming. These are efforts which are all being done and supported by the President through these initiatives of meeting him.

FS: During last year’s Million-Men March, you raised economic, social and political issues which needed to be addressed. Have they been addressed?

KC: Several issues have been addressed so far, while on some of them Government is putting in place mechanisms to address those concerns.

For starters on youth participation in internal politics, I have already told you that we are in and come 2018, our youths are going to participate fully in these polls.

The only position where we are comfortable with the candidate holding that post is that of the President of the party.

All positions are going to be contested, excluding Senate positions because there is an age limit. But for Lower House and council representatives, it is going to be every man for himself and God for us all.

Another notable achievement is on small-scale miners, makorokoza. The majority of them are not licensed and have always had running battles with the police, but after putting across the concerns to President Mugabe, we are happy that the line ministry is busy registering and regularising these operations.

On accommodation, the President availed land for stands. The leadership has come up with a brilliant idea of not dishing out residential stands but building high rise apartments. The land does not expand and we support this idea of building going upwards instead of spreading out. It means if successful, many youths will be accommodated.

We are only calling up the respective Government departments to speed up those initiatives. We are now crying for accommodation, not residential stands.

On agricultural land, we are happy that the Government has adopted a position whereby they are going to downsize all underutilised farms and give some to youths. T

hese are some of the achievements and we are making a follow up on every concern we raised.

FS: You mentioned the idea of participating in elections and do you think the youths would be equal to the task?

KC: We don’t want imposition of candidates. The more we support the idea of our youths participating in these elections, we are also against the idea of imposing them in various positions.

We are encouraging them to prepare themselves, be it in terms of resources. At the same time, it’s not mandatory that everyone must contest to be a councillor or to be an MP, we only have 210 constituencies in a country with millions of youths. Only those willing to contest must prepare themselves.

FS: We have some youths who have been going around beating up people in the name of Zanu-PF. What steps have you taken to rein them in?

KC: The initial step which we took was to warn them and after realising that they were taking too long to repent, we then disassociated the Youth League from them.

We are happy to tell you that some of them have since written some apologies, especially Fiona Ricket. We have her letter of apology in our office. She regrets her actions and has now pledged to work for the party, saying she is now a reformed somebody.

The other one is Munyaradzi Shoko. He has written to us seeking pardon. He claims that they have been putting the name of the party into disrepute unknowingly.

As the Youth League, our main mission is not to subtract membership, but to add. Those who would have managed to show some signs of remorse we will take them back and start associating with them, but at the same time emphasising the need to have discipline and stick by the principles of the party.

We are going to deliberate on their letters in our next national executive, then we will take a position. We will also be assessing their social and political behaviour. That will also guide us.

FS: One thing you cannot run away from is the fact that there is factionalism in Zanu-PF. What do you think should be done to stem it?

KC: To an extent I agree with you that there is no unity in the party, but I am also happy to tell you that there is unity in the Youth League. My responsibility is to lead the youths and I have played my part to make sure that there is unity.

We are going to advocate for unity in the upper echelons of the party. We are also happy that the President always preaches unity and it is our hope that the elders in the party will sober up and heed the call to prioritise unity than ambitions.

FS: First Lady and Women’s League Secretary Dr Grace Mugabe has called on President Mugabe to name his successor as a way of stemming factionalism. What’s your view as the Youth League?

KC: We support more than 100 percent the call by the First Lady for the President to appoint or to even give guidance as far as the processes are concerned to choose his possible successor when the time comes, but we are not stampeding for His Excellency to choose a successor.

He can even go up to 2023, but when he then feels that he needs to step down due to various reasons, yes we have given him that leverage to guide the party when it comes to choosing his own successor.

We as the Youth League we are close to our Women’s League. We move in tandem, both of us are party wings. You have even heard a slogan where we say pane mwana ndopana amai, meaning we are one.

It’s yet an idea not a position, as soon as it becomes a position we will advise you. We have various ideas. Come 2018, we have a candidate and he is President Mugabe.

(As for the successor) we can only classify that possible successor as a candidate when confirmed by the party, but at the moment we don’t have a can- didate.

Our President is still strong as you can see him addressing his party supporters for more than an hour whenever the need arises. He is still fit to execute his duties mentally and physically; he is switched on.

FS: We are going for elections in 2018, what is your prediction?

KC: We have already declared ourselves winners before the polls. Just judging by our performance as a party and Government, we have already won. We are only waiting for the statistics.

It is those opposition parties like MDC-T and other fly-by-night entities that need rocket scientists to tell them that they have already lost. By trying to push each other into coalition, it means MDC-T on its own is scared of facing Zanu-PF. They now want a collective lose and we will hand them one come next year.

FS: We cannot part without mentioning the issue of alleged blasphemy or over drive boot licking. You have equated President Mugabe to Jesus and you have received brickbats for that. Say something on that.

KC: President Mugabe is an extraordinary person. He is one of his own. We have never witnessed in history a country being governed by a 93-year old leader. He is a fit, energetic, switched on President.

We have never heard of a country which has embarked on such agrarian reform like Zimbabwe and this has been championed by President Mugabe. I believe that in heaven there is God.

Once upon a time, Jesus came and liberated us spiritually and once again there was a son of man who was called Robert Mugabe, who was born and he liberated us politically.

Mugabe liberated us politically and is in the process of liberating us economically. What more do you need? To me he has played a more or less role like Jesus played on us.

Jesus sacrificed for us and at the same time President Mugabe has also sacrificed his life for us Zimbabweans.