Instead, ruling party youths yesterday chose to shower
praises on President Emmerson Mnangagwa for implementing “youth-friendly
policies”.
The day was officially declared a public holiday during the
same month Mugabe was toppled by Mnangagwa in 2017 through a military coup.
Mugabe’s loyalists had since 1986 used the occasion to
rever him, as it coincided with his birthday.
In his statement to mark the day, Zanu PF acting secretary
for youth affairs, Tendai Chirau said: “Most importantly, it is the day we
acknowledge the involvement of the youths in the rebuilding of this nation, and
we appreciate what President Mnangagwa has done under the new dispensation,
where we have a number of youths that were appointed as ministers and deputy
ministers and also a number that are also MPs, as well as one permanent
secretary.
“If it were not for COVID-19, we were going to sit with
authorities and government officials to deliberate and celebrate the gains we
have achieved in as far as youth involvement and participating in the political
and economic spheres are concerned.”
Chirau said the National Youth Day was a day for the youth
to look at the economic opportunities available for them, including issues to
do with access to land.
He said the youths were looking forward to the government
to finish its land audit, in order for them to benefit from the land that was
lying idle and which is in the hands of multiple farm owners.
Exiled former Zanu PF political commissar and a strong
Mugabe ally, Saviour Kasukuwere, paid tribute to the former leader and said it
was sad that his former erstwhile comrades had chosen to ignore his legacy.
“Who fights a person from the grave?” Kasukuwere asked
rhetorically. “Even if you ignore it, it doesn’t mean we will forget him. His
achievements celebrate themselves.
“He shaped the policies on young people and their
empowerment and it was for the empowerment of the majority of the people.
Today, we have young people in farming and in mining because of his stance and
we agreed in government to honour the man and what he is known for and those
who are failing to do that and are ignoring his legacy should have opposed
that, but they did not do that when the day is on the calendar and was declared
a national holiday.”
Former Zanu PF provincial chairperson for Mashonaland West,
who is now Norton MP, Temba Mliswa (Independent), said: “Today, we remember the
birth of a great leader — like him or hate him, but you couldn’t ignore the
late RG Mugabe. I’ll always be grateful for the courage he gave me to stand
firm for what I believed in as a young, black man. He was an inspiration. Gone,
but not forgotten.”
Mugabe’s family has been quiet since the toppling of the
former strongman, choosing to privately honour the former leader from the
confines of their Blue Roof mansion.
Government, through Youth, Arts, Sports and Culture
minister Kirsty Coventry, yesterday said the day was to celebrate contributions
by the youth.
“The 21st February is a National Youth Day. The day was
proclaimed and instituted by the government in 2017 in order for the nation to
recognise and celebrate the contributions made by the youth throughout the
history of the country as well as for the young people to recognise and emulate
the leadership values,” she said. Newsday
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