PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is set to launch his 2018 re-election campaign with a plan to visit Zanu PF youth structures countrywide.
Zanu PF secretary for youth Kudzanayi Chipanga said Mugabe’s visits which start next month and end October are aimed at mobilising youths to take part in political processes, among other objectives.
“The objective of the meetings is in line with our party’s constitution where we have a responsibility to mobilise youths to participate in the political, social and economic activities of the country,” Chipanga told State media.
The now 93 year-old leader has often been criticised for concentrating on more lucrative foreign travels and abandoning his domestic visits to citizens who have been affected by hunger and floods among some recent catastrophes.
With a crucial 2018 poll now beckoning, Mugabe finds good reason to begin a round of travels he last did during campaigns for his 2013 re-election.
Youth, organisers of the one million man march in 2016, have stood with Mugabe even after the mainstream war veterans group have vowed to dump the controversial patron in next year’s elections.
They accuse him of neglecting their welfare and siding with a party faction fronted by cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere, who is also Zanu PF political commissar.
Agitated war veterans are clamouring for Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed Mugabe.
Mugabe’s preparedness to embark on a strenuous programme at a ripe age while also facing deteriorating health condition could be one of the earliest signs he has no plans yet to relinquish power to any of his lieutenants.
