Mlondolozi Ndlovu
President Robert Mugabe has been told to reign in his wife, Grace Mugabe, to save his legacy, that of ZANU PF and Zimbabwe at large.
Speaking at a press conference in Harare, former Mashonaland central Youth League Chairperson Godfrey Tsenengamu, who is the National coordinator for the ‘Save ZANU PF campaign’ said the time had come for Mugabe to come out clean on his wife’s interests.
The First Lady Grace Mugabe has resumed nationwide rallies with her recent one being in Mazowe where she declared she will soon name and shame factionalists who want to take power from her husband.
A group of ZANU PF youths allegedly linked to the embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa wore t-shirts with the Lactose brand, which has in the past days been associated with Vice President Mnangagwa’s faction.
The First Lady recently warned ZANU PF members from wearing this brand saying its smacks of factionalists’ tendencies.
At the same event they launched a campaign they code named ‘save ZANU PF’ in which they declared they would save ZANU PF from CIA agents and new comers, apparently referring to G-40 members.
In a statement released on Tuesday the group said “We have noted that some close to you in your social life including your wife DR Grace Mugabe, her so called allies in the party and some in government seem to have hatched an evil plan to destroy the party which you have so much nurtured and protected and they are committed to that project and wants to see its fruition” read the statement.
The ZANU PF youth also noted that ZANU PF had become a pale shadow of its former self and had lost discipline.
“In our strongest view Your excellency ZANU PF has become a shadow of its former self and an enemy to its very existence as there seems to be more time for counter- revolutionary fights than productive agendas which may help in the party and national cause as here we now have a senior party leaders continue to defy you in broad day light and this is sending a very wrong signal to the general members and juniors in the party” read part of the statement which was presented at a local Harare hotel.
The youth who claimed they were being backed by affiliates of the ZANU PF youth leagues who include Zimbabwe Congress of Students Zimbabwe, Youth in Farming, National Youth Service Graduates among others.
“Cde President we plead with you to restrain our most respected mother, your wife DR Grace Mugabe for the good of the party, your legacy, unity and for her own good as a politician” they emphasized.
The youth said that Grace Mugabe was lucky to be the wife of the President saying if she had been an ordinary politician her fate would have been sealed.
“It is important to point out that had she been just a politician and not your wife we could have by now confronted her and stopped here right in her tracks. We intend to say much on this subject your Excellency but she must be advised to stop abusing the respect and loyalty that we have for you as our party President and continues to use that cover to advance her interests” read the statement.
Grace Mugabe has in the previous months denied that she wants to succeed her husband but events of the past weeks suggest otherwise.
People who were part of the group included youth chairpersons from all the country’s ten provinces.
