Ex-Zanu-PF youth commissar Tsenengamu launches new political party

Former Zanu-PF Youth League political commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu on Tuesday announced the launch of a new political party, with himself as interim leader.

The Front for Economic Emancipation in Zimbabwe (FEEZ), with green as its main colour, will compete for political space with the ruling Zanu-PF and the main opposition MDC Alliance, Tsenengamu said.

Tsenengamu, spotting a green work suit and beret, launched the new party at the Media Centre in Harare, while sitting on a swivel chair with a banner behind emblazoned: ‘Green Revolution We are the Game Changer: Prosperous and Corruption Free Zimbabwe in our Lifetime.'

Tsenengamu said: "Knowing that the current condition we face today is not natural phenomena but a product of unjust economic practices by organised blood-sucking economic vampires, cannibalistic cartels, corrupt, selfish and heartless capitalists and monopolists, I have together with some here decided to take a stand giving up the comfort and luxuries of our past associations to fight with many others for the sake of generations of current and the future.

"We have so much confidence in the revolutionary capabilities of ordinary human beings to accomplish this."

Zimbabweans had become "a sloganeering, politicking and voting populace paying less attention to the economic issues at hand, the bread and butter issues affecting us", Tsenengamu said as he vowed his party would campaign on a platform of "successful execution of an economic revolution."

He criticised the fast-track land reform programme which he said had merely taken land from a white minority and given it to "an indigenous minority, largely a clique that associates with Zanu-PF."

"Land has been weaponised and politicised to an extent that whosoever disagrees with the authorities is threatened with land withdrawals or actual withdrawals," Tsenengamu said.

He added: "Production on the farms has plummeted as many are nothing but cellphone and visiting farmers who have no commitment to farm and produce for the country…

"No meaningful and sustainable farmer support schemes have been put in place to enable and empower the farmer to produce, while some have abused the available disorganised facilities and deprived the country of food security and agricultural industry revival."

President Mnangagwa, Tsenengamu said, had come up with "sweet sounding promises and pledges" to deal with corruption, yet he and his party "have done the opposite by protecting and befriending the corrupt."

"Corruption has become a way of living and there is no motivation for honesty and hard work," Tsenengamu said, returning to his public campaign against corruption which ultimately caused his expulsion from Zanu-PF in March last year.

Tsenengamu railed against the Zanu-PF government's dealings with Chinese investors, claiming "authorities seem to have committed to handover the ownership of our God-given natural resources to foreigners who are on a looting spree with the aid of the government and leadership."

"Non-Africans have become a priority of this government as they loot our diamonds, gold, platinum, chrome, lithium and many other minerals. For example, these looters have been given unhindered access to our rivers to supposedly embark on ‘desilting,' polluting our environment and looting our resources while any indigenous person found within those same rivers trying to irk out a living has been condemned to not less than 24 months in prison," he charged.

Tsenengamu said neither Zanu-PF nor the MDC Alliance offered a viable alternative to get Zimbabwe out of its political and economic crisis. "The other party has largely rural strongholds while the other has urban strongholds. Of the two parties the other one has been in governance in charge of central government for the past 40 years and the other one has been in governance structures especially local governance for the past 20 years. Just visit their strongholds and see for yourself how they are performing. It's pathetic," he said.

The FEEZ, Tsenengamu said, will be a "voluntary, apolitical, non-partisan and inclusive radical and militant economic emancipation movement of the united citizens of Zimbabwe."

The party had "no funder nor patron", he said, while revealing that he will lead the party initially in the position of "national coordinator."