Zimpapers Logo

Absolom Sikhosana

Herald Reporter
THE normally tranquil suburb of Pelandaba will tomorrow come to life as the Zanu-PF juggernaut rolls into town for the penultimate series of the highly subscribed Presidential-Youth Interface Rallies that have seen many predict doom for the opposition in next year’s harmonised elections. Think-tanks, political analysts and opposition honchos have all predicted a resounding victory for Zanu-PF on the back of the huge turnouts for the Youth League-led Interface Rallies that have seen the revolutionary party showcase its mobilisation prowess.

What has baffled many is that a party the opposition loves to deride as a dinosaur commands such a huge following among the youths, a decisive demographic that constitutes an estimated 45 percent of eligible voters. Add to this the fact that there are two more wings, the Main and Women’s wings, that are still to show what they have up their sleeves and one cannot help but feel for an opposition still smarting from the near shut out of Election 2013.

And the Zanu-PF Bulawayo provincial leadership was naturally upbeat ahead of the ninth Presidential Youth Interface Rally with provincial chairman Cde Dennis Ndlovu urging residents to turnout in their numbers at White City Stadium.

“The date has been set and we are on alert. We promise the President that the people will attend the interface rally in their numbers. As an urban province, our main problem is the cash shortages and unemployment of our people as we all know Bulawayo used to be the country’s industrial hub,” said Cde Ndlovu.

He said residents of Bulawayo should know that the interface rally was not just for Zanu- PF supporters but was for the people of Bulawayo as a whole because the President was for all Zimbabweans regardless of political affiliation. Today the party will hold a meeting at the provincial offices at Davies Hall to outline modalities ahead of the rally tomorrow. The provincial organising committee chairman, Cde Absolom Sikhosana, said today’s meeting was critical as it was going to reveal the programmes that will be followed.

Bulawayo will be the ninth province to host President Mugabe. The last rally will be in Harare. The thrust of the rallies is for youths to meet President Mugabe and present challenges facing their respective provinces. The interface rallies held so far have all been highly subscribed as province after province showed its mobilisation capacity.

•  Additional reporting by Nqobile Tshili, Bulawayo Bureau