Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
Zanu-PF is targeting to mobilise about five million voters ahead of the 2023 general elections, party Political Commissar, Cde Victor Matemadanda has said.
Addressing students from tertiary institutions in the Midlands province during a provincial students’ convention held at Kwekwe Polytechnic College recently, Cde Matemadanda said the party intends to win by an outright margin to avoid squabbles that have proved costly to national development.
“As Zanu-PF we are targeting to mobilise five million voters come 2023. What this means is that we are going to win by not less than 65 percent in the Presidential race,” said Cde Matemadanda.
He said stunts by Nelson Chamisa-led MDC-Alliance, who is refusing to recognise President Mnangagwa as a legitimate leader after the 2018 plebiscite, were proving costly.
“As a party we resolved to mobilise more voters for the 2023 elections after realising that production time is being wasted by people who refuse to accept the result of an election. It is therefore important that when we vote next time, we win by a wider margin and those that lose do so by a big margin to avoid disputes,” said Cde Matemadanda.
He said the mobilisation was based on production and led by peer groups.
“We have rolled out programmes centred on production and spearheaded by peer groups that look into issues to do with youths, women and other special groups. These are groups where youths’ issues are addressed by youths for the youths and the same for the women.”
Cde Matemadanda who is also Deputy Minister for Defence and War Veterans’ Affairs, said special groups like the war veterans and the disabled were also set to benefit from the programmes.
“War veterans need to be capacitated to do their own things because they understand their problems better than anyone. This is the same for people who live with disabilities, they need to be capacitated,” he said.
Cde Matemadanda said youths were being prioritised in the forthcoming land redistribution so that they engage in empowerment projects.
“The downsizing of farms is going to benefit mainly youths. We have a project to allocate at least a 2-hectare piece of land to individuals who have no land,” he said.
Organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Students’ Union (ZICOSU), the seminar brought together students from Midlands State University (MSU), Kwekwe Polytechnic College, Gweru Polytechnic College and Mkoba Teachers College.
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