A YOUTH group claiming loyalty to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday came out guns blazing threatening to manhandle three Cabinet ministers it claims are fronting the Generation 40, believed to be a pro-First Lady Grace Mugabe faction in Zanu PF.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Addressing journalists in the capital yesterday, members of the Zimbabwe Youth Action Platform (ZYAP) claimed Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo and Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao were disrespectful to war veterans.
The majority of the youths had wristbands emblazoned with the face and names of President Robert Mugabe and Mnangagwa. ZYAP president Tonderayi Chidawa warned the three ministers would be humiliated in public at the National Heroes Acre.
“It is uncouth, hogwash and immature to say the least that our veterans of independence can be addressed as mere taxi drivers and loose drunkards given the ideological clarity and steadfastness that drove them to liberate this country from the yoke of colonialism,” Chidawa said in apparent reference to remarks attributed to Kasukuwere.
“Indeed our war veterans can’t be humiliated by a rapacious clique of power-hungry gangsters led by errant intellectual dwarfs and war deserters finding comfort in the titles of professors.”
Chidawa added: “We declare that because of their blatant lack of respect to the shrine and war veterans in particular who are the heroes and heroines of this country, they should cease to attend the Heroes Acre functions from today onwards.” Pressed to reveal what action they would take if the three ministers set foot at the national shrine, Chidawa said they would use force to eject them.
“We will stop them through National Youth Service members. They will not come and we will not tolerate them. They will not ever set foot at the Heroes’ Acre and we mean what we say. We will manhandle them physically and take them out. That is a holy shrine and to save themselves from embarrassment they should not come to the Heroes’ Acre,” he said.
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The youths also accused Zhuwao of causing discord in his ministry alleging he was out to scare investors by demanding 10% indigenisation taxation. The youths charged that Zhuwao was out of order when he allegedly said the country did not need foreign direct investment.
The youths took a dig at Moyo for his hard-hitting Twitter posts saying he should follow protocol lest they believe he was clandestinely trying to destroy Zanu PF from within.
Commenting on the threats, Zhuwao said: “Zimbabwe is a constitutional democracy and everyone has a right to their opinions.” Moyo and Kasukuwere could not be reached for comment yesterday.
