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Sen Mahofa

George Maponga in Masvingo
All is set for President Mugabe’s Youth Interface Rally scheduled for this Friday here, with the province stopping at nothing to ensure it successfully hosts the “mother of all rallies’’ expected to be attended by over 50 000 people. The rally will be held at an open space outside Mucheke Stadium. President Mugabe’s Masvingo rally will be the third leg after launching the rallies in Mashonaland East province followed by the Manicaland rally at Sakubva Stadium.

Speaking during a preparatory meeting yesterday, Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa reiterated her call for organisers of the rally to ensure the majority of people to attend the meeting are youths.

“Let us please make sure that the youths come to the President’s rally in their thousands because it will be their day to get close to the President,” she said. “The rally will be for youths, so while we expect others to be also there, youths should constitute the majority.’’

Sen Mahofa urged ruling party structures to mobilise people from all over the province to welcome the President.

In an interview with The Herald, Zanu-PF Youth League secretary and Politburo member Cde Kudzanayi Chipanga said they were winding up preparations.

“The Masvingo Provincial Youth leadership has been very busy in human mobilisation,” he said. “Masvingo province is one of Zanu-PF strongholds, hence the youths cannot afford to miss an opportunity to have a face-to-face interaction with their icon.”

Cde Chipanga said logistics such as the pitching of tents at the venue would be conducted today, while a progressive review meeting will be held tomorrow to appraise the leadership on the preparations.

He said several musicians had been lined up to entertain the multitudes, including Zim dancehall musician Soul Musaka, popularly known as Soul Jah Love.

He dismissed claims that there was bad blood between the Youth League political commissar Innocent Hamandishe and the musician after an unfortunate incident at Sakubva Stadium.

Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial youth chairman Cde Nobert Ndaarombe said youths in Masvingo were in buoyant and celebratory mood as the President’s rally was coming after the recent commissioning of the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam and the launch of the Beitbridge-Harare Highway dualisation, both worth nearly $1,3 billion.

“We will thank the President for what he did to the people of Masvingo and also start looking at ways (of) how we can immediately benefit from these projects,” he said.

Companies and individuals made pledges to donate food and transport to ferry people from various parts of the province.

Chivi Rural District Council chairman Dr Killer Zivhu donated $2 000 to buy cattle to feed people at the rally.

A consortium of Masvingo private land developers led by Masvingo Housing Consortium director Cde Wellington Mahwende donated $3 000 and pledged to mobilise over 50 commuter omnibuses to ferry people.