The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Zanu-PF Secretary for Youth, Cde Kudzanai Chipanga, took a swipe at some heads of parastatals for their incompetence and implored President Mugabe to make sure Cabinet Ministers give an update of what they have done to resuscitate parastatals within their ministries at the December Conference.
Cde Chipanga was speaking during a Presidential Youth Interface Rally in Lupane on Friday. He said a lot of parastatals were being run down by under-performing bosses who were doing nothing to turn them around and yet were getting “obscene salaries and allowances”.
“When we go to conference in December, we implore you President to ask each minister which parastatals in his /her ministry they have revived. We want to hear just three parastatals per ministry. What we are concerned about is that parastatals employ the youth, and the youths are the ones most affected by sanctions but some of their heads are too relaxed,” he said.
He went on: “Let us shake the tree, parastatals need to be resuscitated, the capacity is there but some of the heads are incompetent. There are many parastatals in Zimbabwe, more than 100, some of them are recovering which is good but we wonder whether some are existing or not, they are not visible. They are only visible by the fact that people will be getting salaries, their CEOs are there because we see them going for holidays but on the ground there is nothing tangible going on.”
Cde Chipanga called for decentralisation of operations of parastatals. The Zanu-PF youths boss praised Matabeleland North Province for exhibiting unity, being peaceful and rallying fully behind the President.
“I have been to many provinces and there are challenges here and there but there is only one quiet province in the country which is Matabeleland North. In terms of party issues this is the province that is solidly behind you President Mugabe,” he said.
“It is the only other province after Mashonaland East that has constructed its own provincial party office. We want to thank them for constructing their own offices. It means that if people can build offices for the party, they are simply saying Zanu-PF is here to stay. Mat North leadership had asked to have the offices officially opened by the President but it will be done at a later date after they have installed some equipment like computers.”
Cde Chipanga said the presence of thousands of youths at the Lupane rally was an indication that 2018 elections would be won resoundingly.
“These are just the youths who came here, we are still to have women’s league rallies then the main wing, it shows us that we are going for elections as a procedure but we have won this province,” he said.
Cde Chipanga lamented the continued stay of Government heads of departments for Matabeleland North in Bulawayo saying it retards development in the province.
“Bulawayo is another province. The challenge is that development may take time to reach Mat North as the senior civil servants do not reside in the province. What it means is that when they travel to Lupane for work they use a lot of fuel and that money could be funding other projects if they were resident in the province,” he said.
He said they have established that offices were available but there were no housing units for the workers and called on Government to expedite the construction of houses.
“We are pleading with Government to ensure that houses are availed and the people move in. Starting from the Provincial Affairs Minister’s home and Provincial Administrator, they need to be local and do the work of the province which is convenient,” he said.
Cde Chipanga called on youths to register to vote in next year’s elections.
“It is useless to say we have one million youths in Zimbabwe when they are not registered to vote. All youths need to register to vote in next year’s elections. When the new biometric voting system is unveiled all youths must go and register and vote,” he said.
