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Cde Chipanga

George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
The Zanu-PF Youth League has set June 30 for President Mugabe’s third leg of the Youth Interface rally in Masvingo, with the event expected to coincide with the launch of a massive voter registration campaign by the revolutionary party. The party’s secretary for youth affairs Cde Kudzanai Chipanga yesterday said President Mugabe’s meeting with the youths in Masvingo would be held at Mucheke Stadium.

The President launched the Youth Interface Rallies in Mashonaland East province, with Manicaland being his next stop on Friday this week.

The rallies were organised by the Youth League to discuss issues affecting youths and drum up support for the revolutionary party ahead of next year’s harmonised elections.

Addressing Zanu-PF youths at Masvingo Polytechnic during a meeting to set in motion preparations for President Mugabe’s visit, Cde Chipanga said the Youth League wanted to embark on a massive campaign to make sure young people registered to vote.

“We have set June 30 as the day when our leader President Mugabe will descend on Masvingo at Mucheke Stadium for the Youth Interface rally and preparations for the big event have already started here,’’ he said.

“I am also happy to announce that on June 30, the Zanu-PF Youth League will also launch a massive voter registration campaign ahead of the start of the new biometric voter registration exercise by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) because we have realised that most young people are not on the voters’ roll.

“We want to make sure all those young people, who are not registered voters do so and help the party to register a crushing victory.’’

Cde Chipanga said he would soon be informing President Mugabe and the revolutionary party’s leadership about the date of the Masvingo Youth Interface rally.

He said the voter registration campaign by the Zanu-PF Youth League would run until ZEC starts the BVR exercise.

Cde Chipanga said President Mugabe’s youths rally in Masvingo will focus on how young people in the province and beyond will benefit from the nearly $1,3 billion Beitbridge-Harare Highway dualisation and the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam.

He said besides employment, the vast irrigation potential at Tokwe-Mukosi would open up avenues for young people to go into full time farming by embarking in horticulture.

Before the Zanu-PF Youth League meeting, the ruling party’s Masvingo provincial co-ordinating committee held its own indaba where senior Politburo member Cde Josaya Hungwe said the revolutionary party’s leadership in the province would not interfere in the activities of the Youth League.

“We made it very clear that Cde Chipanga and his team were free to organise their own activities in preparation for President Mugabe’s meeting with the youths here without any interference,’’ he said.

Cde Hungwe said the ruling party leadership in Masvingo was pinning its hopes on Cde Chipanga and his team to organise the mother of all rallies attended by a capacity crowd to meet President Mugabe.