Source: Mugabe turns to youths in re-election bid – DailyNews Live
Fungi Kwaramba 11 June 2017
HARARE – He might be old and increasingly frail, slow and stuttering, but
there is no doubt that in Zanu PF, President Robert Mugabe is still the
glue that holds, albeit loosely, the fragmented party together.
Judging by the sea of people who flocked to his youth rally in Marondera
last weekend, analysts said Mugabe was turning to youths and women as his
faction-torn party grapples with elite discohesion centred on succession
and the nonagenarian’s unquenchable thirst for power.
Now in the twilight of his long political career spanning more than five
decades, the 93-year-old’s ongoing youth rallies are not about the youth
or Zanu PF, analysts said, they are more about Mugabe himself – that those
who seek to succeed him should not underestimate his popularity within the
party.
Mugabe has lined up 10 youth rallies countrywide.
Analysts said the youth rallies are also meant to seal the succession
debate once and for all that Mugabe is not going anywhere, yet.
This is cemented by First Lady Grace Mugabe’s utterances that her husband
will rule Zimbabwe even from the grave.
According to Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo, the ruling party has
now split into two antagonistic factions namely the Generation 40 (G40)
and Team Lacoste formations.
Moyo, an alleged G40 faction kingpin, however prefers to call his camp the
“loyalists” and attacks Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the leader of
Team Lacoste who cannot wait to see Mugabe’s back.
The former teacher has dismissed any prospects of relinquishing power. And
having fallen out with war veterans, hitherto the dynamos of his party, he
is now turning to the youths.
The youths are the largest demographic group. A shrewd schemer, Mugabe
hopes to tap into their raw energy in his bid to retain the crown.
This comes as the chemistry that Mugabe used to enjoy with the war
veterans and the broader coercive apparatus of the State seems to have
waned.
War veterans have always been the shock troopers of Zanu PF and Mugabe yet
nowadays the public spats between them and some of the president’s
appointees notably Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, embattled Zanu PF
political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, ministers Moyo and Patrick Zhuwawo
– all alleged G40 members – exhibit a quarrelsome relationship.
At the centre of this querulous relationship has been the war veterans’
repugnance of Grace, as a result of her undoubted control on Mugabe, Zanu
PF and the State.
By turning to the youths, Mugabe is demonstrating to all and sundry that
he is as young as he feels. And ahead of the 2018 elections, he seems to
have lost trust in his old guard and now hopes the women’s league led by
his wife, Grace, and the youths, led by the “grovelling” Kudzanai
Chipanga, could shore up his re-election bid.
Take for instance events in Marondera a fortnight ago. On a sunny day, in
a town that had been face-lifted to receive royalty, thousands of Zanu PF
youths thronged Rudhaka Stadium to listen to Mugabe as he snarled at his
impatient underlings, making it clear that he will not throw-in the towel
anytime soon.
Chipanga encapsulated the thinking in Zanu PF. Their leader is a “god” of
sorts, he is an angel, according to Chipanga.
“Truly speaking, in heaven there is God and here on earth there is an
angel called Robert Gabriel Mugabe. You are representing God here on
earth,” Chipanga gushed.
Amidst grinding poverty, with unemployment levels over 90 percent and the
World Bank having slashed the country’s economic growth forecast to 2,3
percent from 3,8 percent, it seems the youths in Zanu PF – who are not
spared the economic rot – have nothing to do than organise rallies for
Mugabe.
“We are the vanguard of the party and there is nothing unusual with these
rallies, because it is an opportunity for the youths to raise their
concerns and challenges,” Chipanga told the Daily News on Sunday.
“We also seek to be assisted to tap into opportunities that are being
provided by government. Government is doing a lot of turnaround programmes
and our president is ready to listen. He is pro-poor and pro-young people.
“Therefore, we would like to use our president to catapult our young
people into economic prosperity.”
On the campaign trail, Mugabe is doling out residential stands and vending
bays to youths.
Analysts say Mugabe is alive to the growing chorus in the country to pass
the baton, not only from the usual suspects in the opposition, but also
from within his party Zanu PF.
Analysts insist Mugabe is using the rallies – with the next scheduled for
Mutare then Masvingo – to make a bold statement.
Political analyst Dewa Mavhinga said Mugabe and Zanu PF are in full
election campaign mode for the 2018 national elections in which the Zanu
PF first secretary has been unanimously endorsed as the ruling party’s
presidential candidate, when he will be 94-years-old.
“Mugabe is unlikely to step down at all, consider him Zanu PF life
president and therefore any talk of him bidding farewell to anyone is
misplaced.
“For those in Zanu PF, it is less about Mugabe’s health or physical
condition and more about the myth and legend that Mugabe has become to
them.
“Consider how senior Zanu PF officials like Chipanga deify and glorify
Mugabe to the absurd point of talking about Mugabe ruling from the grave,”
Mavhinga told the Daily News on Sunday.
The Zimbabwe Democracy Institute think-tank said the youth league has the
potential to deliver another crushing victory for Mugabe and Zanu PF
during the 2018 election.
“It is crystal clear that Zanu PF is already in the 2018 election mode and
thus needs to keep its structures, primarily the youth mobilised,” the
paper said, adding it was also about showing rival factions and those
entertaining hopes to succeed him that despite his advanced age, he is
still very popular in Zanu PF.
“Such rallies and the previous Million Man March organised by the youth
league are usually organised amid growing chaos and weakness within the
party, and the ongoing rallies were a way of stamping and cementing
authority, and to react to opposition protests amid a regressing economy
being presided over by Zanu PF.
Despite growing discontent between war veterans and Mugabe, “the party can
do without them and rely on the youth to deliver victory.”
“It then remains to be seen whether or not … Mugabe will be able to
avoid another bhora musango campaign and another embarrassing defeat in
2018,” the ZDI said in a recent political economy review paper. .
Analyst Maxwell Saungweme said Mugabe was now subjected to gross
manipulation by his ever scheming underlings who are pursuing their own
agendas.
“He is being pushed by ambitious people who have been using him and
proximity to him to gain political weight,” Saungweme told the Daily News
on Sunday.
“He is an old and tired man who should be resting. Those people like his
wife who are forcing him to painstakingly go and address these rallies are
speeding up his demise.
“He does not need to ascertain any power at this point. He is old and must
rest. Moving around addressing the youth is not his making but a G40 ploy
to put Ngwena’s (Mnangagwa) ambitions at bay.
“These useless rallies are concocted by people who are abusing an old man
for their own ends.”
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