ZANU PF youths have rejected a call by their suspended national commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to meet his arch-rival Nelson Chamisa and invent solutions to the national crisis.
This is according to a statement issued Saturday by acting national deputy secretary for youth affairs Tendai Chirau.
Tsenengamu and Lewis Matutu, also suspended as youth league deputy secretary, have invited a backlash from President Mnanagagwa and the Zanu PF leadership for openly accusing oil mogul and presidential ally Kudakwashe Tagwirei of leading cartels that have bled the country of billions of dollars through underhand dealings which were left unchecked by the authorities.
But after his suspension for 12 months, a defiant Tsenengamu was back to declare he will not abandon his anti-corruption campaign.
The firebrand Zanu PF youth leader went on to prescribe a meeting between the country’s two most powerful politicians adding this was the most viable resolution to ending the national crisis.
Tsenengamu said on February 21, 2020 there would be a gathering under his newly formed Zim-First Agenda under which he shall invite Mnangagwa and Chamisa to come and make addresses on how they intended to remedy the national crisis.
However, his calls have been received with resentment from his Zanu PF colleagues who feel it was taboo for Mnangagwa to dine with the enemy.
Said Chirau: “We note with close interest the propagation of misdirected opinions that the only panacea to Zimbabwe’s challenges is dialogue and possibly a unitary Government between Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa and the leader of the MDC Alliance Nelson Chamisa.
“These calls are ill-conceived, regrettable and selectively ignorant of the fact that it is only Zanu PF as led by Cde E. D. Mnangagwa that has a mandate to lead the Government of Zimbabwe and any attempts to change that are tantamount to the usurpation of the will of the people of Zimbabwe as expressed through the ballots cast in July 2018 and affirmed by the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe.”
The youth affairs interim leader said Tsenengamu’s cravings for a dialogue of sorts has already been fulfilled by the current Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), in which Mnangagwa is coalescing with leaders of parties that contested the 2018 Presidential election.
“I think anyone who is calling for dialogue between the major political parties, the platform has been done and what is important is that we take into account that elections of 2018 were done.
“We had a winner and that winner out of his generosity actually established a forum so that anyone who wants to talk and add value to the development of the country is free to join that particular platform,” Chirau said.
While acknowledging there was massive corruption in the country, Chirau rubbished Tsenengamu’s statement last week reminding him that government had institutions to deal with the crisis.
“We are genuinely aware of the existence of institution which are constitutionally mandated to combat corruption such as Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission (Zacc), Southern African Customs Union (SACU) to aid the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) and the Judicial service Commission (JSC).
“It must be borne in mind that most corruption cases fail on account of dearth of empirical evidence. To this end we call upon all morally upright Zimbabweans with evidence of any corruption cases to bring forth such evidence to the attention of the relevant corruption rupturing organisations,” added Chirau.
He further pointed out that issues of engagement to build Zimbabwe were imperative as much as they were detached from the pressing issue of corruption at hand.
“It would be injudicious of anyone fighting corruption to assert that political dialogue between the First Secretary of Zanu PF and President Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa of MDC-Alliance is a magic potion to end corruption.” – Newzim