‘Factionalism is a fact of group dynamics’
ZANU PF acting deputy youth secretary Tendai Chirau has denied reports that party youths were being used as pawns by bigwigs involved in factional wars.
Instead, Chirau claims that the youths were part of the larger leadership matrix of the ruling party. Chirau (TC) last week spoke to NewsDay (ND) Midlands reporter Brenna Matendere on the party’s endless factional and succession wars, among other issues. Below are excerpts.
ND: You rose to your current position in February this year following the suspension and expulsion of Godfrey Tsenengamu. How are you uniting Zanu PF youths?
TC: My mode of ascension to this position is immaterial. It was part of an established party process and party procedures do not necessarily require references to individuals’ names. It is imperative to note that the Zanu PF youth league is not a stand-alone entity divorced from the party.
The league is one of the wings of the party. This, therefore, means that the league does not operate in isolation. It does its own programmes, but guided by the party.
To this end, the league will always work to ensure that our nationalist values continue to be held sacrosanct and that our ethos of collective salvation from imperialist bondage and exploitation, in its various forms throughout successive epochs, continues to take precedence over personal aggrandisement/glory.
As a matter of fact, the youths are united and bound together by the revolutionary party’s dictates of unity, peace and development. Through continuous orientation, education and various forms of empowerment, we endeavour to continue strengthening unity of the youth, and the evidence we have at hand is indicative of a stronger, more robust and cohesive youth league.
ND: From the time of late former President Robert Mugabe, Zanu PF youths have been outed as pawns in intra-party factions, what is the situation now?
TC: Factionalism is a fact of group dynamics, a reality that cannot simply be wished away wherever human beings gather. Politics is no exception. Factionalism destroyed the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in equally the same manner it caused the split of Zanu PF and Zapu in the 1960s. Factionalism also caused the dissection of the MDC in 2005. It is a logical result of a contestation for the ascendancy of certain ideas or ideologies. History has, however, faithfully vindicated the supremacy of the founding values and principles of any movement.
In Zanu PF fortunately, those reneging against those values have always fallen by the wayside. This is because the party as an institution maintains a larger and more powerful identity than that of any individual or faction, real or imagined.
I take the involvement of youths in these defining moments you refer to as being both incidental and unavoidable. Incidental because the media has a proven affinity to young voices even where elderly voices are also making noise, and unavoidable because youths also have a stake in the politics of their land. True, Zanu PF youths are guided by the party ideology and statutes. As a demographic cohort, they constitute a critical mass, much as the youth of the 1960s and 70s did in spearheading the liberation struggle. They are the energetic arm of the masses. Zanu PF youths, therefore, cannot be pawns, because they are part of the larger matrix.
ND: What is your comment on the high unemployment rate and general economic hardships affecting young people?
TC: Obviously, as someone mandated by both my fellow cadres and the generality of youth in Zimbabwe to help ensure that young people are meaningful partakers in the social and economic development of the country, I take all their challenges to heart. I also take care not to lose focus of the totality of the national situation. We are an economy reeling under the effects of illegal sanctions imposed by our Western enemies, instigated by some people in politics who still want to be called Zimbabweans and friends of young people, compounded by adverse acts of nature such as climate change and the current COVID-19 menace.
The ramifications are certainly complex and indeed disappointing to any self-respecting leader of young persons. I only pray that on top of our redoubled efforts to uplift youths, some among us begin to see the light and recognise the sanctions for what they really are; a naked evil in the house, entertained by people who still dream of calling themselves our brothers and sisters.
ND: What solutions are you pushing for to ensure young people’s hardships come to an end?
TC: It will be remiss of me if I do not mention our inexorable fight as a party to negate both the illegal sanctions and their effects. However, we steadfastly continue to refuse to let this narrative limit our potential for selfpropulsion. We strive to secure a niche for every willing youth in the national social, economic and political development process. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has already created a platform for productive youth engagement in various facets of the political economy; widespread space for youth in leadership, mining, agriculture and industry. My job is cut out, like that of any other youth leader in Zanu PF; to help avail opportunities and encourage young people to be innovative, proactive and to explore and take up the various opportunities being opened up under the new dispensation. National development is a collective effort and only by valuing the dignity of labour, the ethos of hard work and a culture of entrepreneurship, productivity and discipline do we get rid of the albatross of poverty around our necks.
ND: How confident are you that Zanu PF will win the next elections and Mnangagwa gets a second term in 2023?
TC: I am highly confident that President Mnangagwa will resoundingly win the 2023 elections and get a second term in office. He has already proven himself to be a sagacious, astute, visionary listening President and people’s leader who has a full grasp of what the nation needs in order to go forward.
There is ample logic in allowing him to carry his vision 2030 forward because it is a peoplesensitive vision which only Zimbabwe’s enemies can wish to derail. From the time he was elected as President, he has not rested as he is setting up the right foundation for economic take-off.
This is being done through the engagement and re-engagement mission, fighting corruption and capacitation of productive sectors. Some of the results are visible today. However, it is cognisant to note that economic development is not an event, but a process and I am certain that under his leadership, Zimbabwe shall surely catch up with the other world economies and overtake.
ND: Mnangagwa has said he would like to leave power to a younger person.
Is he grooming a successor from the
Zanu PF youth league?
TC:
Zanu
PF is a great democratic institution that employs standard procedures as enshrined in its constitution. That also applies to its succession plan, if there be any such thing. What I mean is, everything that happens in the party follows laid-down procedures and these procedures are already engineered to ensure smooth generational blending between the elders and the youth.
There is, therefore, no danger of the party falling short of eligible candidates. The nation witnessed this in action when Mnangagwa assumed the presidency of the party without contestation. Zanu PF is an extremely organised and well-oiled people’s organ of expression of their wishes, including about who should lead at any given time.
ND: What is your view about corruption in the country and suspension or expulsion of Zanu PF youth leaders who named individuals understood to be fuelling graft?
TC: I acknowledge that corruption is indeed a cancer in our society which requires ruthless corrective surgery. This is the case in many parts of the world as well. I also accept that as the Zanu PF youth league, we are duty-bound to be among the frontline combatants against the scourge following the laid down procedures.
You will remember me stating earlier that Zanu PF is a party that respects its own protocols. These protocols also do happen to operate in sync with national laws. Naming a suspect without proper admissible evidence has two effects; it is potentially libelous, and may inadvertently prompt any miscreant to cover their tracks pre-emptively.
This actually works against the anti-corruption drive. Couple this with operative party regulations, and you will notice that there is no better strategy against the vice than discipline, pure and simple!
ND: Do you aspire for a higher post in Zanu PF?
TC: Offices in Zanu PF do not belong to elected officials. They belong to the electors, at whose mercy we serve. The offices also do not come from sheer personal whim, but from collective mandate.
What we only contribute after being elected are our personal God-given attributes and commitment to execute the mandates as dictated by the people. There is nothing wrong with ambition, however, because it is a natural trait in human nature.
I will, therefore, happily submit myself as far as the people wish me to go, and then strive to serve them even beyond their wildest expectations. My aspiration is, therefore, not to be elected for a higher post in Zanu PF. I only aspire to go where people want me in Zanu PF, and then strive to exceed their expectations.