Zanu-PF is not Zimbabwe

THE ruling party, Zanu-PF's youth league wants to force teachers and nurses to undergo indoctrination at its Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology so that "they do not sell out!"

In the recent past, civil servants and members of the police have been commandeered to attend lectures at the party's school.

The school is a Zanu-PF-affiliated institution established to indoctrinate supporters with the party's ideology.

We have no problem with what the party and its members do to imbue each other with whatever messages, doctrines, or ideology to advance their cause.

But the idea of forcing anyone they want, including non-members, is a big no. Zanu-PF youths must know that their party is not Zimbabwe.

The Chinese Communist Party is one of the most dominant political party in world and has solely governed China since 1949.

In a country of over 1,4 billion, its membership is just over 99 million. South Africa's African National Congress has ruled the neighbouring country since 1994 and yet, in a country of nearly 60 million people, its membership is just over 600 000.

These parties do not foist their ideologies on the general citizenry, but on their own members.

Why do the Zanu-PF youths think that they should ride roughshod over everybody? This betrays their sense of entitlement, which will one day be their downfall.

The party youth should be at the forefront of the struggle to transform Zimbabwe's economic fortunes and formulating plans of how the rich can share wealth with the poor for a more inclusive society.

Instead of agitating for constructive issues such as preserving the value of pensions for their retired and soon-to-retire parents, these misguided youths are leading the party in the wrong direction, clamouring for an 81-year-old man to be the face of the future.

To his credit, in public at least, Mnangagwa has stuck to his publicly stated desire to leave office when his term ends in 2028 and finally enjoy the rest all grandparents deserve after a lifetime of work.

The youths must recognise this and instead, work with the old party guard for better guidance and develop a better philosophy that will take the party forward for generations to come than forcibly inculcate a tired philosophy on professionals.

We think the greatest gift Mnangagwa can give Zimbabweans is not the "wonderful work" the Zanu-PF youths enthuse about, it will not be the dystopia of a middle economy class by 2030 that he promised or the new roads and infrastructure that he is championing currently.

But, if Mnangagwa sticks to the Constitution, and ignores the noise from these misguided youths that he breaks the Constitution, and facilitates a democratic transfer of power in 2028, he would be Zimbabwe's true father of democracy, and set the country on a path that would lead to true development and accountability.

These Zanu-PF youths should listen to Mnangagwa who told them at the Harare meeting this week that: "You have a duty to … wholeheartedly serve the young people of Zimbabwe."

It's time they actually listen to him.