President Mugabe, a man of the people

The distinguishing characteristics in the mould of President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Party, ZANU-PF throw light on how the electorate has much confidence in both him and the revolutionary party.

The Presidential Youth Interface rallies which are being held across the country's ten provinces and running under the theme 'Honouring our African Icon, unlocking the value in youth' reflect the trust and support that the electorate still has in President Mugabe and the revolutionary party, ZANU-PF.

While other opposition parties boast about huge number of supporters through the eyes of the media, it is pleasing that President Mugabe's support is rightly noticed on the ground. Honestly, the numbers of people who are attending Presidential Youth Interface rallies speaks volumes and no one can deny that. Certainly, the President's strength and justification lies in those masses.

Firstly, about 15 000 people attended the Presidential Youth Interface inaugural rally in Marondera on the 2 June 2017. Such a huge number depicts not only unity among ZANU-PF party members but it also demonstrates that President Mugabe is a man of the people. If one may ask, who would attend a rally of a leader that he/she has no interest or confidence in him?

The opposition parties through the private media are trying hard to harm the reputation of President Mugabe. A number of nonsensical articles have been imprudently written to discredit President Mugabe leadership as a campaigning gimmick for opposition parties. However, this has not been working. As the First Secretary of ZANU-PF, President Mugabe ensures that the party policies and ideologies are pro-people and accommodates the needs and wants of every citizen hence; becoming the most liked and favored political party.

The fact that these meetings are being attended by all party members, thus members from the Women's league and other senior party officials despite it being a rally organised by youths to interact with President Mugabe signifies the positive feelings that the people have in President Mugabe and the revolutionary party.

President Mugabe's popularity in terms of acceptability, appeal and good leadership qualities cannot be compared to anyone in the country at the moment.

In buttressing that, a number of previous surveys from reputable institutions as Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) and think tanks such as Afrobarometer also proved that President Mugabe was most popular when comparing him to rivals in the opposition outfits. Also, the 2013 election results revealed that people have confidence in President Mugabe and his leadership.

The humungous number of people that attended the Presidential Youth Interface rally in Mutare on 16 June 2017 shed more light on the popularity of ZANU-PF. It was reported that about 40 000 attended the Mutare youths meeting. The opposition parties should not take these numbers for granted. While ZANU-PF is showing its true colours and what it is made of, the opposition parties are busy poking at each other on coalition positions and senselessly complaining a lot over electoral reforms issues, which are already being implemented by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

To add on, last week President Mugabe interacted with youths in Masvingo Province. That rally also served as a timely reminder to the opposition parties that the revolutionary party is still the party of choice. About 25 000 people were reportedly to have attended that rally so that they could see and hear their leader speak. As it stands, the opposition are already quaking in their boots considering the high number of people that are showing up for the Presidential youth meetings.

Surely the opposition cannot expect to grab any vote in these ZANU-PF stronghold areas. Actually, they should draw lessons from the ruling party on how it does its party activities and other programmes that entice the electorate.

The revolutionary party leadership should therefore be encouraged to educate its supporters on how they should register to vote so that when 2018 election approaches, all the people will be able to cast their votes in support of the party and its leadership.