Youth League raps opposition

THE ZANU-PF Youth League has rubbished protests by the opposition against hosting the 21st February Movement celebrations in Matabeleland South Province, saying they do not have a say in the affairs of the ruling party. This follows complaints by Mthwakazi Party, People’s Democratic Party and a pressure group, Ibhetshu LikaZulu, over the choice of the venue by the ruling party. The opposition parties were quoted in the private media saying ZANU-PF was being insensitive by hosting the celebrations in Matobo district.

THE Zanu-PF Youth League has rubbished protests by the opposition against hosting the 21st February Movement celebrations in Matabeleland South Province, saying they do not have a say in the affairs of the ruling party.

This follows complaints by Mthwakazi Party, People’s Democratic Party and a pressure group, Ibhetshu LikaZulu, over the choice of the venue by the ruling party.

The opposition parties were quoted in the private media saying Zanu-PF was being insensitive by hosting the celebrations in Matobo district, which they claimed would reignite memories of Gukurahundi.

The event will now be held at Rhodes Estate Preparatory School after being moved from Matobo National Park.

Addressing a Press conference in Harare, Zanu-PF secretary for Youth Affairs Cde Kudzai Chipanga said they were not moved by utterances of the opposition.

“Unfortunately those people of the Mthwakazi, I understand, are not resident in that province, so they do not have a say at all in as far as provincial affairs in Matabele- land South are concerned,” he said.

“The unfortunate part is that the responsible province, guided by our theme of promoting domestic tourism, are the ones who came up with that venue of Matopos. It is not us who dictated to them.”

Cde Chipanga said their plans would proceed uninterrupted.

“After all, we do not listen to or we do not take heed of calls from opposition political parties. We expect them to do such because that is their job of opposing whatever Zanu-PF does.

“We had several programmes as Zanu-PF. Our party Zanu-PF led Zimbabwean people to liberate this country, they were opposing. Our party Zanu-PF led the land reform programme, they were opposing,” he said.

“It is championing the indigenisation programme, they are opposing. Our party is even giving agricultural inputs to farmers to enhance food security, they are opposing.

“So, that is their duty to oppose. That is why they are called opposition parties. But that does not stop us as a ruling party to exercise our powers to govern this country because our job is to govern this country and their job is to oppose,” he said.

Cde Chipanga said the venue had been chosen to boost domestic tourism since it is a crowd-pulling event.

“It has been our theme as the Youth League that as we do such events, we also play a role in terms of economic recovery which is being done by the Government.

“So we have chosen sites to do with those efforts which are being done by our Government; to take for instance Matopos, it’s a tourist attraction. So us having such events in Matopos we are promoting our domestic tourism,” he said.

Cde Chipanga said the Youth League was yet to come up with the theme for this year’s celebrations.

He said regional and international delegates were expected to attend the celebrations from former liberation movements and sister revolutionary parties like the ANC of South Africa, Frelimo (Mozambique), MPLA (Angola), Patriotic Front (Zambia), Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Tanzania), PPRD (DRC) and, BDP (Botswana).

Other parties from outside the continent include those from China, Cuba and Iran.