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President Mugabe

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
ZANU-PF youths in Bulawayo will today meet the State committee chaired by the Minister of State for Bulawayo provincial affairs Cde Nomthandazo Moyo as part of the preparations for the Presidential Youth Interface rally that will be held in the province at the end of this month.

A date is yet to be set for the Bulawayo rally, which will be held after the Mashonaland Central rally that has been slated for this Saturday.

The party’s Bulawayo provincial youth chairperson Cde Anna Mokgohloa yesterday said preparations for the provincial rally would start today. “We were last month officially given the green light to start mobilising resources ahead of the rally.

“As part of the preparations we’re meeting the State committee tomorrow to map the way forward. “We’re targeting to raise about $50 000 for the event and we’re hoping to attract more than 50 000 people. “We have identified White City Stadium as the venue for the event,” said Cde Mokgohloa.

She said the preparations included mobilising resources, raising funds, organising entertainment and setting up the information and publicity committee, which will be responsible for placing banners advertising the rally,” she said.

“We’re going to be the ninth province after Mashonaland Central to host the Presidential Youth Interface Rally and our hope is that more people will come and interface with the President. “Although the date has not been set, we expect to have our interface during the last week of September,” she said.

Bulawayo, Mashonaland Central and Harare province are the only provinces yet to host the Youth Presidential Interface Rally after successful hosting of the event in seven provinces.

The youths are using the interface meetings to interact with President Mugabe as well as articulate social, economic and political issues affecting them. Among other issues, the Youth League is advocating for young people to have access to land, agricultural inputs and participate in mining activities.

Zanu-PF is also using the rallies to show its mobilisation prowess as each rally is being attended by huge crowds. This dovetails with findings by respected think tanks that President Mugabe and Zanu-PF’s approval ratings have been increasing in inverse proportion to those of the opposition.

The engagements are expected to run until October when the President would have visited all 10 provinces.