Tuesday, November 07, 2017

ZANU-PF Youth League Endorses First Lady
November 7, 2017
Zimbabwe Herald

Youth League Secretary Kudzai Chipanga stresses a point during a press conference at the ZANU PF headquarters in Harare yesterday. Picture by Munyaradzi Chamalimba.

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter

ZANU-PF Youth League has endorsed the party’s Secretary for Women Affairs, Dr Grace Mugabe, as the right candidate to occupy the Vice Presidency ahead of the party’s Extraordinary Congress set for next month. The ruling party is in the process of amending its constitution to accommodate a female Vice President ahead of the Congress. Further, the party’s youth wing also supported the call by Dr Mugabe to remove VP Mnangagwa from his position both in the party and Government.

President Mugabe has since fired VP Mnangagwa from Government. This was after some hooligans masquerading as ZANU-PF members heckled Dr Mugabe during her address at the Presidential Youth Interface Rally in Bulawayo last Saturday. In keeping with what President Mugabe said following the Bulawayo incident, ZANU-PF Youth League Secretary Cde Kudzanai Chipanga said VP Mnangagwa and his henchmen were free to form their own political party if they so wished. Cde Chipanga told journalists yesterday that Dr Mugabe was the suitable candidate for the VP post because her loyalty to the party and President was unquestionable.

“For avoidance of doubt, the Zanu-PF Youth League is fully behind the Secretary for Women’s Affairs, Amai Dr Grace Mugabe, in calling for the urgent removal of Cde Mnangagwa from the position of the Vice President both in the party and Government,” he said.

“That position is a straightjacket and must be handed back to the Women’s League. The Women’s League will guide us on the way forward regarding their preferred candidate. However, keeping in mind that the woman Vice President shall be Vice President of the whole nation, Youth League included, it had ignited us to take interest and position in the selection of the woman Vice President candidate. It has to be one who is acceptable and with unquestionable loyalty to the party and its principal, the President Cde RG Mugabe, and more importantly, one without ambitions to work against the President. The only person possessing such qualities is the leader of the Women’s League, none other than Her Excellency, the First Lady of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Amai Dr Grace Mugabe.” Cde Chipanga apologised on behalf of the Youth League to the First Family on what happened in Bulawayo. He said the ZANU-PF party was built on principles of mutual respect and common national interest.

“We as the Youth League are not blind to the identity of the parties behind this unpalatable behaviour and we are alive to their machinations and devices,” he said.

“We are therefore sending a strong message to these people and their handlers — this country was built on the ultimate sacrifices of our people whose blood watered the revolution. The person of Head of State is sacred and, more so, the integrity and reputation of the First Lady is untouchable.

“As the President clearly spelt out on Saturday, these clowns masquerading as genuine party members whilst promoting the hostile agenda of the party’s co-Vice President Cde ED Mnangagwa are free to take their circus to the political zoo by forming their own party.” Cde Chipanga continued: “We, the youths of Zimbabwe wish to apologise unconditionally to the Head of State and Government, President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and First Secretary of ZANU-PF, His Excellency the President Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Mother of the nation, Secretary for Women’s Affairs, Her Excellency the First Lady Amai Dr Grace Mugabe for the disruptions during the Youth Interface rally in Bulawayo.

“We wish to distance ourselves from such conduct and condemn it in the strongest possible terms. Whilst this conduct was perpetrated by a tiny minority bussed by enemies of our struggle to disrupt and distract the main agenda, we wish to sincerely and humbly apologise as this was done at our event as the Youth League.

“Disruption of our Mother, the First Lady, at the Bulawayo rally over the weekend therefore merits the strongest censure and condemnation by the Zimbabwean youths. Whilst this is a free country where this cabal of irrelevant, filthy and bird-brained sorry lot can have the temerity of exposing their emptiness and crass stupidity, we the youths will no longer sit back whilst our agenda is hijacked and the tenets that pin our revolutionary party are being torn to shreds.”

No comments: