SUSPENDED Zanu PF youth league bosses, who faced the wrath of the party politburo last week, have had their salaries and allowances frozen and all benefits that came with their posts garnished.
The youth league’s former political commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu told NewsDay yesterday that they were ordered to surrender all party assets, but insisted life would go on as they were ready to join millions of jobless youths in the country.
Tsenengamu was suspended from the party together with deputy youth secretary Lewis Matutu after naming President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s allies Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Billy Rautenbach and Tafadzwa Musarara as individuals bleeding the country’s economy by engaging in corrupt activities. Zanu PF youth secretary Pupurai Togarepi was demoted.
Immediately after his suspension last week, Matutu came out of the politburo meeting to find his vehicle and aides gone.
“Today (yesterday), I surrendered their vehicle, a Ford Ranger. I was at the party headquarters as a permanent official so they stopped my salary. That will not affect my life in anyway because most of the youths are not employed and they are surviving. It is just normal, you continue with another life, no hard feelings,” Tsenengamu said.
On allegations that they were being funded by Americans, the firebrand youth leader said: “When we started, I posted on Facebook saying desperate times (call for) desperate measures. I said it was too late to soil our names because we had picked it that when they sat, they agreed to create a conspiracy theory that we are being funded by the (Central Intelligence Agency) CIA and the Americans.”
“Some are saying we have been sent by ED (President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa), others are saying we have been sent by General (Constantino) Chiwenga, others are saying we have been sent by Tyson waBantu (Saviour Kasukuwere), others are saying we have been sent by (Christopher) Mutsvangwa and we now have others saying we have been sent by the CIA and others say Temba Mliswa is sending us so you just say to yourself, what really is the story here and it exposes why people are panicking to this extent and portray us as enemies of the State because obviously when you are being funded by the CIA they say you are enemies of the State,” he said.
“Why are they desperate to such an extent? All that corruption, exploitation of natural resources by individuals at the expense of the majority, does that mean we are now agents of the CIA? Why label us to such an extent?
“You should expect that from people who have been cornered who did not expect such a fight from members of the youth league who they thought would continue to act deaf, dumb and blind.”
On the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission statement that they were investigating the allegations and also waiting for evidence from the duo, Tsenengamu said it was up to the anti-graft body to investigate.
Tsenengamu insisted that their planned anti-corruption summit next week will go ahead and that a week later, they were expecting Mnangagwa and opposition leaders to grace an event to have them accede to dialogue and find a common position to take Zimbabwe out of the crisis. – News Day
