'Wadyajena is abusing Mnangagwa's name'

TWO prominent young cadres of the ruling zanu-pf party, Cdes Justice Mayor Wadyajena and Acie Lumumba (AL), have of late been involved in a rather nasty public fight where they have thrown everything at each other in what is seen as a sub-plot of a rumpus assailing Zanu-PF at the moment. They both claim to have ''godfathers'' for whom they fight.

Tichaona Zindoga (TZ), sought audience with the controversial cadres. Wadyajena asked for written questions but had not responded at the time of going to print. Below Lumumba gives his side of the story

TZ: Thank you for this interview. I would like to go straight into the matter. There is a lot of talk and goings on within the ruling Zanu-PF party. Where do we place the youths and what role do the youth play in the affairs of the party?

(AL): I think what's happening in Zanu-PF right now (is that) you have positives and you have negatives. I think on the negatives where we need to improve our work and we need to emphasise more on ideology within the party. There hasn't been enough emphasis that has taught our young people what it means to be the vanguard of the party, what it requires of you and the commitment and the dedication that is required of you and what you are doing in Zanu-PF.

This we need to put a little bit more emphasis and work on. What I think is the positive thing about Zanu-PF is the young people have remained active. We should celebrate the fact that we still have majority of the party being represented by young people.

This is a positive thing, what it means is that young people are constantly looking for where they fit in into the political landscape of this country and that's a positive, we must encourage that and we must derive the value that comes from that.

TZ: But what has been seen as worrying at the moment is that there have been a lot of fights among youths and especially on social media. What would you pin that to?

AL: Well, look like I said from the premise, the negative thing is there is a serious lack of ideology. So we haven't oriented our young people enough for them to know the rules of the game, so there is a lot of over-excitement that is taking place. But you also need to appreciate and acknowledge that whenever you have that many people in the same room, whenever you have 10 people in the same room, to get everybody to agree all the time is very difficult.

And when you don't announce or regulate how you express your disagreements you have instances like we have now. So we have a lot of young people who are so hungry to complain or so hungry to be heard that they use any and every platform and sometimes it is the wrong platform.

Is this a disaster? I don't think it is a disaster, I think it can be fixed. You find in most of the negatives of social media, it's really a few characters who kind of propagate the idea of everyone running behind a bad idea, mob psychology.

TZ: Speaking of what you termed wrong platforms, now you are very active on social media and there has been a very marked spat between yourself and Justice Wadyajena. What is the genesis of this?

AL: I have an ideological difference with Hon Wadyajena. We both belong to a party called Zanu-PF, the party we both belong to has got a process and a system in which we are supposed to do things. Hon Wadyajena has absolutely no understanding of this, if he has an understanding of this he has absolutely no respect for it.

Let's go to the matter, it's on the matter of indigenisation. Hon Wadyajena was granted or given the opportunity to chair the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Indigenisation. Now, I do not have any problem with him exercising that duty, I have a problem with him exercising that duty in a manner that is derogatory or a manner that is challenging to a party principle.

Now, when I say party principle I am not only reflecting to the party individual who he is calling I am referring to the party principle of indigenisation itself. Indigenisation was never an individual programme belonging to an individual. It was programme that the President of this country put forward and when you now start challenging that in a platform such as Parliament I have a problem with that because you are one of us.

Let me put it this way for you, Zanu-PF is like a family. In this family you have a mother and you have a father and you have brothers. So all of us are like a family. The father is President Mugabe, the mother is Amai Mugabe, the rest of us, anyone below Amai Mugabe and Baba Mugabe, are all brothers within Zanu-PF.

The problem now comes when you have a young brother like Wadyajena, who now wants to push so that some of his older brothers become the head of the family. That is being lost. You are now forgetting what your father said, you now want to go to school to go debate it at school.

We have a party caucus. If he has issues he can come, we have a ministry which he can go through; he is just using the wrong platform to express his opinions and that really is the genesis of my problem with him.

TZ: But there are suggestions that you are doing this for Saviour Kasukuwere - you are considered very close to him and said to take him as your "godfather" as it were. Is this how we should situate your fight with Wadyajena?

AL: First of all, this whole thing of godfathers is very strange to me, I don't understand it. The only person I know who has a godfather in Zanu-PF is Wadyajena, who is the one who goes around talking or claiming that the Vice President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) is his godfather.

I don't even think that is true, I think he is abusing the name of the Vice President. When you see me around the National Political Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, I am around him by default of the position he is executing. The man has a mandate to execute the job within the party structures into organisation. I belong to party structures. He is a party principal so we move with him in that regard.

I think what you have to appreciate about Kasukuwere is that not only was he the Youth Minister, he was also a leader within the Youth League for many years. He has been a big brother to the youth movement in this country. I am not the only person who has a relationship with Minister Kasukuwere.

I think a lot of young people have a relationship with Minister Kasukuwere because he makes it his agenda to open his arms out and rope young people in. I didn't even know that much about Zanu-PF until people like Kasukuwere brought us in.

But something very important I think it is to note is there is this thing on social media going on now that me fighting with Wadyajena is Kasukuwere fighting with Mnangagwa. If I have a difference with Wadyajena, Wadyajena is not the Vice President.

Where is this assumption coming from that if someone attacks or if someone differs with Wadyajena he is differing with the Vice President? I have tremendous respect for the Vice President and I am way too junior to ever ?

TZ: But recently you had a tweet in which you insinuated that the VP was anti-President Mugabe?

AL: This came up again on my Facebook and I asked people the same thing that I am going to ask you, that look at it in perspective. What happened in the tweet is that Hon Wadyajena was going on and on about how "Ngwena" is being fought by so-called "vanhu vaAmai" and I was asking, "So if you are claiming to be representing him, can you explain to me why him, since you claim (this is why I said I think he claims, I don't even think he represents the VP), in your claim of representing the VP can you please explain to me why the VP would be attacking the President because I don't believe the VP is attacking the President?"

There is a definite attack growing against the President and his agenda and people like Wadyajena are thoroughly behind it, thoroughly supporting it. Are they working with the VP? I beg to differ, I haven't heard the VP say anything about it!

TZ: You are one of the people who have been following a new slogan of "Vanhu Vese Kuna Amai". Some have argued that this is yet another manifestation of the abuse of the name of the First lady?

AL: How are we abusing the First Lady's name? As for me I am a supporter of the First Lady. Why and why do I follow her everywhere she goes? Now, can you name for me any other politician in this country who is championing the needs of the people more than Amai?

That woman is the most meticulous and committed politician I have ever come across. I am behind the First Lady because she has earned my loyalty. Ivo naBaba are the backbone of the party, the fabric from which we are cut.

TZ: Going forward, what do you think will be and should be the role of the youth in the party and country?

AL: The youth are the vanguard of the party, whatever is there to be protected must be protected by the youth, but most importantly youth have the responsibility to dream for this country. Our young people out there are ambitious and I know they have what it takes to turn our fortunes around. You just keep watching.